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 Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:47 pm
The shaman had learned that everything was not always as it seemed, but had not yet obtained the wisdom to accept the contrary. Sometimes, things were exactly what first assumption suggested they were. Ran was an example of the former; she was not only an adult, but an adult with adult children. Her companions, however, were exactly what they appeared to be -- listless, mindless spirits fluttering after her.
She looked pathetic. She was pathetic.
Birds were more mighty, and they made sure she knew it when she dared approach the corpse of what had once been a deer. Most of the bones were picked clean. What remained had been declared their own, and the feathery beasts had challenged her for the scraps of meat without fear. They squawked and pecked and clawed until she'd backed off.
Ran sat back and watched the scavengers paltry feast, her ears dropping low and her empty stomach dropping lower. She didn't know where this depressing forest was, only that it was somewhere with birds and a dead deer and a very hungry shaman having a very bad day.
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Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 5:41 pm
 John Daniel, contrariwise, was in his prime. Having just recently left his birthplace for a home with a little more challenge (it was far too easy, where he lived - it bored him to no end), he was fit and healthy and up to taking on the world. And this smallish female had caught his eye. He watched her pitiful attempts to secure a scrap for several minutes. When it became obvious she wasn't going to win, he charged out of the brush, barking and scattering birds everywhere. On a snap decision he caught and killed a particularly slow one, winking at the female and leaving it with the carcass. He backed off far enough to leave her room but not so far that the birds would see it as license to return.
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:34 pm
In every history book, fable and often in experiences of life one theme stays timeless and consistent: no good deed goes unpunished. This wolf would not be punished, per say, by the definition of "punishment" suggesting venomous intent. He had scared her before he had the chance to "help" her. Help being grievously assigned quotations because--
"Why did you do that?!" Ran wailed - wailed loudly. If she'd shouted like that to begin with, those birds would have fled just to escape the ear-piercing noise, for her voice was soft and sweet in its natural state, but raised higher by panic the pitch became screechy and agitating. She looked startled, horrified, lost in a way only puppies should be; she, certainly, was too adult to resemble a pup. Or should have been.
Hunting was a part of life - something wolves had to do. All life was valuable, be it that of prey or predator. Her shamanism (was that a word, she wondered? "Shamanism"?) left her with more of a respect, but that seed had been planted since she was born. Ran had always loved and more so respected the roles of the forest creatures. To die to feed was one thing, but to be killed for convenience sake...
Ran whined, heartbreaking and pathetic, lifting her eyes to the sky where the rest of the flock had fled.
What if those had been companions to the bird shaman Aleu? What if they told on her?
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Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 10:54 pm
"Well, because you've gotta eat, right?" He was a little befuddled by the female's reaction; in his mind, he had just provided for her.
But JD was not an easily angered male, provoked by her seeming rebuttal. His reaction was more of...of wanting to understand. "I'm sorry. I thought you might like to eat it. Was that something I shouldn't have done?" In his family, it was considered a matter of course that things must be killed. In fact, they prized a skilled hunter. This seemed very, very strange...and yet, there were places that must be different, right? Rules he didn't yet know?...He hoped he wasn't in serious trouble.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:35 pm
Ran was befuddled. She nearly got whiplash looking between him and the corpse, the bird she would have never thought of eating. The bond with her avian-happy shaman friend had left them permanently off the menu. So much so Ran didn't even consider eating them a viable option. She wouldn't eat her butterflies, would she?
If every shaman in the woods befriended Ran and dubbed themselves a patron of a prey beast, perhaps she would starve.
"I..." Ran sat where she'd once stood and took a moment to think. "No. No, I can't eat birds. They might be friends of a friend. You can't eat your friend's friends." If someone ate her dear squirrel she would be very upset. "Thank you for trying, but..."
But-- Wait--
Ran looked around her, ears perked way, way up. "Where did you come from?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:56 pm
Well, now there was a shocker. A bird being a friend? He'd never heard of such a thing. Either she was off her rocker, or...or his family was waaay out of line. "Well, somebody's gotta eat it now..." he said helplessly, unsure of what else to say. He started toward it. "I come from-"
Just then, the bird started to move. Evidently he hadn't been as thorough as he'd thought. It sat up and blinked at him. JD was left completely at a loss. Ordinarily, he would have finished the job, but...here was this female telling him he shouldn't. "Uhh..." was all he managed, standing there staring at it.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:15 pm
"You're alive!" Ran squealed.
To her credit, she didn't spend time rejoicing beyond the second it took to state the obvious. There were many situations she'd be incompetent. This was not one of them. It had been, once -- for a long time. Plenty of experience had taught her how to do her job efficiently.
Panic was a last resort. When something died, then you could panic. When there was nothing left to do, panic was fine. Anything was fine.
But the bird was alive!
"Hold still -- hold still. You'll be all right!" Ran should have sounded more soothing than excited, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes scanned the smaller creature, determining the worst of the damage.
The butterflies congregated on the gash, flicking their wings -- glowing vibrantly. To JD it was only a bright light on a dying bird.
No... A healing bird.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:27 am
JD stared at it. Huh. "Well, now THERE's something I've never seen before," he said, looking amazed. He couldn't see it clearly, but there was something there. "And the bird seems to be getting better. Wow. Did you do that?" There seemed to be no end of wonders today. He sat down. Good thing stuff this wierd didn't happen to him every day - he'd never know which end was up!
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 4:15 pm
"Don't tell on me!" Ran pleaded with the fleeing bird moments later.
Her jittery butterflies returned to her side, frolicking amongst themselves. Ran watched them for a second, taking a headcount, making sure none had been lost. Paranoid didn't begin to cover it.
"Mostly," she said. "I have help, but you probably can't see them. I guess they don't have shaman where you come from?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 4:41 pm
"Don't have what?" Well, I guess that answers the question. I have no idea what she's talking about. "Was that what the light was...?" He definitely wanted to understand this new thing, and as turned from watching the bird fly away to look at her, his face said so. He glanced down at the other dead creature. "Ummm.....this thing's still sitting here...if you want it...."
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:44 pm
Since her stomach wasn't twisting in turning in ways that made her sick because of the bird, Ran could eat. (Her stomach was still twisting and turning in ways that made her sick because of hunger). She seemed like such a proper thing, a "goody-goody" sort -- the type of wolf who, when presented with food, ate quietly and neatly.
Ran was not mute or elegant in her consumption, though. Her powers granted her immunity from the mistreatment she would have suffered without them. For that, she was lucky. Had she never been "gifted", she was the kind of omega other omegas' would harass.
Her mother had considered her a lost cause from the start; a puppy not worth teaching manners to. She'd always eaten this way and no one had corrected her.
With her mouth half-full, she construed, "Those were mine. They help me heal. I'm a shaman." Ran ripped another piece off and gnawed on it before going any further into her explanation. "We help things that are hurt -- usually."
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:11 pm
JD broke a smile. At least he'd managed to do something right.
And personally, he couldn't care less how others ate, mainly because he was usually too busy trying to stuff his own face before the meal disappeared. There had been enough to keep them all well-fed, but there had been some unusually gluttonous members who tended to eat his share if he wasn't quick about it. Actually, her manners-or lack thereof-presented an element of familiarity that had been missing in their interaction up until now. It kind of made him feel better.
"Usually?" He wasn't sure he wanted to know what an aberrant shaman did, given what had just happened, but he was so very curious. He laid down and crossed his front paws. "What does one do that doesn't heal?" One of many questions, really. The world was showing JD a whole new side.
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:32 pm
Ran felt sick again. So sick it was dizzying. Her stomach was full of half-chewed meat, but this ailment came from something more emotional. She felt like her heart had been squeezed and everything else was just a backlash. A more educated wolf would have known to feel ridiculous for their reaction when they were the one who brought it up, no matter how indirectly.
"There was one I know of who wasn't... like the rest of us." The undead shaman that had followed Tekka -- or was it Tekka that was following him? Ran tried to wish ill on no one, and she had always done her job in a way that made her injured patients faceless; she healed the hurt no matter what they looked like or who they were. Her alpha had raged at what she saw as weakness, once bluntly confessing to Ran if she weren't a shaman she'd have her attacked for assisting the enemy.
Ran knew it was wrong, but she knew not doing it was wrong, too.
She couldn't be sure if telling him the details was violating some unwritten rule Raja would never want her to break, but she guessed it didn't matter now. They were all gone and she feared if she didn't oblige this stranger he would leave. She was more lonely than she'd ever been hungry.
Ran had been terribly hungry.
"I'm not sure what he did." She didn't want to know the secret for a corpse to become mobile, and after she'd heard of him she had nightmares of their fallen enemies rising from the dead and coming to steal her away. Or worse, take her puppies. "The rest of us heal."
Aside from him, Aleu was the only shaman Ran knew of directly, let alone had met. She was one of the first to awaken in the forest and should have probably made the effort to know the others, but she had never felt it necessary; Ran just assumed they were all like her, that all of them would do the right thing unless something was seriously wrong with them to the effect of being the walking dead.
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 4:33 pm
JD noticed that the small female was suddenly looking a little ill, or at least upset. "You okay?" he asked, after listening to her reply. "You don't look so good all the sudden." He watched intently lest she pass out for whatever reason was making her so pale. Not that she wasn't pale anyway, he thought to himself with a secret smirk. She was about the lightest-colored wolf he'd seen so far. Thinking back, most of his family were dark earthtones. No telling where he came in. Perhaps an outside mating? But those thoughts could wait...for now.
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