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 Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 5:50 pm
 It was evening, just after the sun had begun to set, but before the darkness of night could settle its cover over the skies and the earth. Darius stirred from his slumber, blinking his eyes wearily before rising to stretch, shaking himself when he was done. A great yawn escaped from his maw, but he did little to suppress it and, with one last look around, he took off with a purposeful stride, headed away from the direction of the sinking sun.
A line of trees bordered his left side and a grassy plain stretched out to his right. He stuck to neither, but instead chose to weave between both, the shadow of one and the fading light of the other playing against his eyes as he moved. When the pads of his paws touched the grass beneath and the early song of insects began to play, he wondered how long he had been alone, away from the life of a pack, how long it had taken for him to purposely go out of his way in search of company, as he was doing now. He had changed since he began to travel, this he knew, and although he had regarded it with disdain at first, he grew to accept it. This was his life now, and it did little help to dislike it. And, besides, he hadn’t changed completely, and the familiar pang his stomach faced now was proof of it.
Raising his nose and keeping his ears erect, he changed his focus and began in search of a meal. Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long for results and soon, he was following the sound of soft steps, gentle chewing, and whiskers brushing against leaves. It led him to a pair of grazing hares and he kept low, downwind, and silent. He took care to be as cautious as possible, for he knew that in the life of an average wolf, much more prey would be lost than caught. But now was not the time for such thoughts: thoughts of wolves or companions or lifestyle. It was only him and his potential meals, and nothing more. And so, when the rabbits sensed him and froze, he lunged.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 3:05 pm
 Moca blinked, it felt like just moments ago he had fallen asleep in the heat of the midday sun, yet here he was suddenly a little cold and confused as to why it was almost dark. Shaking himself off he stood and listened to the sounds around him, he was used to being alone most of the time but it seemed that he was totally lost, putting his nose to the ground he could only find faint, old, stale traces of his family. He sat for a moment, trying to think of what to do, then he growled at himself, "of course, how can i be so dim?" he laughed his nerves off and Howled, listening for a reply but there was nothing "seems i'm by myself, lucky father taught me to hunt early" he mumbled. Several unsuccessful forays later he began to get disheartened, however he was a determined pup and, tongue lolling from one side he tried again, this time keeping his body low, making sure that the light breeze was blowing towards him "RABBITS!" he thought excitedly, licking his chops he crouched and inched towards a mound. Unluckily for him the wind changed direction and began shifting his scent towards the rabbits. Mocca's mind raced, he was most likely too far away to leap and pounce on a rabbit now but if he didn't at least try, they'd flee anyway. He clamped his jaws shut and raced forwards, that was when he noticed that the rabbits were looking in a different direction, however it was too late to stop his headlong charge....right past the rabbits and into a darker, much larger form. He crumbled in a heap at the creatures legs.
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Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:20 am
Darius could see the rabbits locate his quickly-approaching form and turn to flee. For one, it was already too late, and a quick bite to the throat ceased its struggles. The other, already having turned around completely to flee looked close to escaping but, for some reason, scrambled against the ground mid-sprint to head a different direction. Although he was uncertain as to why it would do such a thing and his fur bristled with the extra caution he now felt, he took the opportunity to snag what he had thought would be a lost snack. He could feel the warmth of its body against his muzzle and the fur of its flank so close to his fangs. Before he could deal the finishing blow, however, something foreign – and yet, oddly familiar – crashed into his legs, causing him to stumble, but not fall. He righted himself quickly, but the rabbit was long gone.
Pulling his ears back warily, he stepped back to appraise the situation, the fur along his back rising completely to warn away any too close to his meal. He would have growled, too, were he not worried the noise would scare away any other prey within the area, as he was sure the scuffle that had occurred had already done enough damage.
It didn’t take long for him to discover the pup crumpled on the ground and his demeanor instantly turned to one of surprise, and then concern. He circled the pup, nosing him a few times in hopes of a response, straining his ears for signs of the pup’s origin (parents? A pack?) but unable to determine anything specific. The pup didn’t seem hurt, which relieved him, and he wondered what it was doing here and why it had come.
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:11 am
Mocca trembled, the heavy scent of male wolf was now in his nostrils as his crumpled form lay prone at his paws. It didn't take him long to realise he had most likely just ruined the big male's chances of rabbit, his ears lay flat to his skull and he didn't dare look up. His head stayed low as he tried to scramble backwards a little without stirring the potential anger of the male wolf, after all, he was still a pup.
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:00 pm
It stirred, and Darius was filled with relief. For a brief moment, he was worried it had died – nothing more than over-imagination; many pups before had crashed into one another and stood up with laughter on their lips and no worry in their eyes, this he knew – but the stillness of the pup had worried him, and his mind was still on his recent catch and the death it had faced in his jaws.
But then the pup laid his ears down and backed away, and Darius blinked in surprise. A meal was often lost to a wolf, and the rabbit, even if it had been caught, would not have been much to sate him as he was now: a full-grown adult, and larger than most others of his kind. As such, the lost rabbit affected him not in the slightest, and he was unable to comprehend the real source of the pup's fear. Thinking instead that the pup had gotten lost and was fearful because of it, he nudged the rabbit he had felled closer to the pup in a silent offering. He was young, and Darius wasn't sure if he had yet grew large enough to try out meat for himself, but he wasn't against helping if the pup was hungry.
"What's your name?" he asked after a short moment. And then, "Are you lost?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:54 am
Mocca's nose twitched, there was rabbit, and close, he'd flinched when the big wolf moved but all he could smell was rabbit. his stomach growled in response and he started to salivate.
He was just starting to get himself together enough to look up towards the wolf he lay in front of, when the voice came. Mocca's shoulders shrank back down for a moment...until he realised that the voice wasn't threatening ... or didn't seem to be anyway. "m.....m...my name?" he mumbled into his paws, lifting his small head, he braved looking up at the male. "I'm ... Mocca ... my...my family are somewhere but i can't find them" he squeaked, ears flat, ready to flee if the bigger male threatened him.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 12:20 am
Darius flicked his ears at the news, alert, his suspicious confirmed. He was simply glad the pup had crashed into him and not some other predator, one who might find the pup a good meal for their own cubs.
Still, he could tell that the pup, Mocca, still feared him, and he wondered what had caused it. If a pup had been lost, he would have assumed the pup would have been glad to find another wolf, and not the other way around. In an attempt to gain the pup's trust, he once more nudged the rabbit closer to him, nodding in acknowledgment when Mocca finished speaking.
"Are they far from here?" he inquired. Then, noticing his hungry look, "Eat. I will help you search for them afterward." And with that, he sat protectively besides the brown pup, tense enough to be able to spring up at a moment's notice. He was close enough to Mocca to be able to provide ample defense but not so close that he would worry the pup.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 4:16 am
Mocca stopped trembling, this wolf seemed friendly and anyway, he'd nudged the rabbit even closer to him and had even sat down, surely the male wouldn't have sat down near him if he wanted to eat him.
Mocca waited no more than a second before tearing hungrily into the rabbit, swallowing in large chunks, practically inhaling the meat, fur included. "Th....thanks" he said once he had finished, it hadn't taken long he was THAT hungry, "I ...I don't know how far the are, i sniffed all over, and only old smells where our home was, they're gone" he said, sniffing and lifting his head to look at the darkening sky. "i howled and howled but they didn't answer, they would have answered if they had wanted to. They .....left me" he sighed.
He lay his head on his paws and turning so he lay mostly on his side, he looked up at the black and green wolf. "You're ... not going to eat me are you? my parents always told me that other wolves were dangerous that if i ever bumped into another wolf they'd tear me up and eat me" he asked, cautious but sure in his mind that this wolf wasn't a threat .. not now.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:00 pm
If Darius were human, he might have worried about the way Mocca was eating. But he wasn't. He was wolf, and he knew that, in times of hardship, if one found food, it would be best if that food was devoured quickly, lest another come and try to take it from him. So he waited patiently as the pup ate, making sure he didn't choke on anything while at the same time observing and listening to what was going on around him. He didn't hear a mournful howl, nor a predator's step, although he kept an ear out for both.
"They left you?" Darius asked. He was curious as to know why such a thing occurred, for it was only in the most dire of circumstances that a wolf would leave his pup. He began to grow tense at the thought, and he looked around for any such danger that could be so strong it would tear away a pup from his family, although he tried to be as subtle as possible so as not to frighten t he pup.
"I won't eat you," he promised, standing and stretching to show he was relaxed and not a thread. After, he sat again, but this time he was facing the pup and the bones he had left behind. "You said that you were looking for them? Do you mean they were gone when you woke, or did you leave them before?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 1:54 am
Mocca nodded. He thought for a while before answering the male, he wasn't sure why he'd been alone when he woke, but he hadn't liked it and he hadn't liked the sharp acrid tang that covered the ground when he'd gone home.
He grinned when the darker male said he wouldn't eat him, "What's your name?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, curious. "i'd been playing with my brother and sisters we had been playing hide and seek and i fell asleep, i woke up and went home but everyone was gone, there was a strange smell that covered all wolf smell, it was like no animal i'd ever scented before." he shuddered, the scent had scared him but he wasn't sure why.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:30 pm
"Darius," he replied simply to Mocca's question and leaving it at that, without delving into the history or reason behind it, as he knew some others did, especially if they took pride in the name they had been given. Nothing more needed to be known, after all. That wasn't to say he was a secretive sort of wolf; he was merely one who spoke only what was needed, and nothing more. It was the reason he had failed to tell the pup his name when Mocca had first told him his own, and the reason he stayed silent now, after giving a word in response.
When Mocca continued, Darius pulled his ears back suspiciously, his eyes narrowing questioningly as he thought it over. Mocca's family gone, with only a strange scent there? It could have meant many things, especially because it could be anything. He didn't know how much Mocca had learned of the world, and whether the scent was one easily recognizable, from which one could deduct that Mocca's family had left when their lives were threatened, or if it truly had been one unknown, to have caused their deaths.
He snorted, dispelling the thought and glancing sideways at the pup. It would truly be a pity if he lost his family at such a young age but, the sadder part was that these things happened, and that, in all honesty, it really didn't affect him much. He had heard others call it the harshness of nature, that it was the very nature of nature to be vicious. But he had grown up with this surrounding him and was used to it. To him, it was not cruel, but simply just the way things were.
"Could you take me there? Where you live?" he finally asked, waiting without speaking, seemingly ignoring the second part of Mocca's statement, while the pup finished eating. It was only after the last morsel had been taken that he offered the question and acknowledged the pup's words, and he waited with growing doubt for Mocca to reply.
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:58 pm
Mocca sighed and nodded slightly as the male answered with his name "Darius, thanks for the rabbit" he said before finishing it off, it didn't take long. He got up and stretched, licking his chops and yawning, his needle sharp puppy canines showing white but one wobbled as he yawned. He would soon get a new tooth in it's place, a more permanent one.
He cocked his head and looked at Darius "Take you there?" he repeated "sure, be careful though mister Darius, there were some other wolf scents there too... and big wolves will eat you if you go too near to their scent trails, Momma told me so!" he said, his voice cracking a little when he mentioned his mother. As much as he wanted to look brave in front of Darius, a small whine escaped him, after all, it had been only a few long hours before that he'd been playing happily, that he had a family and now he was alone, well .. except for Darius that is.
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 4:30 pm
Darius nodded at Mocca's thanks, his eyes taking note of the wobbling tooth. From it, he could guess that the pup was nearing adolescence and, from both his parents and youthful curiosity, should have been taught most scents by now. If the one Mocca had found was unfamiliar, then what could it have been?
Mocca's fear towards the threat that larger wolves would eat him, which he had brushed off before for the unlikeliness of it, suddenly returned, and Darius wondered why the pup's mother, of all wolves, would be the one to tell him. Perhaps an older sibling who hoped to scare him, but his parent? Were there really wolves who ate their own kind? Or was the mother simply crazy? Well... there was only one way to find out.
"I will," he said in response to Mocca's warning, pretending he hadn't heard the break in the pup's voice and walking ahead so that Mocca could be sure he wasn't watching. After a moment, without turning, he asked, "Which way?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:42 pm
After a few moments Mocca brought his head up, he drew himself up and stuck his nose in the air a little, taking a deep breath with his eyes closed. Once he opened them he began following Darius, then forced a smile on his maw when the older wolf turned to him.
"This way" he replied, turning slight to the left of the way they were walking, his senses following his almost cold trail back to the den he'd been born in. He trotted along, a feeling of dread filling his chest the closer he got, he checked back often to see if the male was following him, afraid of being left again. Once he thought he caught the scent of his smallest sister, but it was gone as quickly as it had come so he passed it off as his nose playing tricks on him.
He stopped dead when they got to a small clearing with a large hole under a tree, he stayed on this side of the clearing, opposite from the den. "There" he said, the mingled scents confusing and scaring him again, just like they had done the first time.
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:30 am
Only after Mocca replied did Darius turn, and this he did to confirm the direction and trail after the pup. They walked for a while, passing scents and sounds he regarded with suspicion. He did not know how close they were to the location of Mocca's original home and everything and anything could add to the strange disappearance of Mocca's family. Had they truly died? If so, why were there no bodies? Were they... really eaten?
A shudder passed through him at the thought. Wolf was not meant to eat wolf. If they lived in desperate times, he would understand, but walking as he did now, with luscious trees on either side, fringed with bushes bursting with berries and the sounds of prey both large and small all around... His shudder turned into a convulsive wrinkling of his lips, so frustrated and enraged he was at the thought, and he struggled to maintain his composure before Mocca took notice.
When they reached the clearing, he stopped, scanning the area. He could smell the pup's fear, and he nudged him gently, finally calmed by his need to comfort the pup. Afterward, he pressed his nose to the ground, sniffing here and there as he went about the area. His movements were organized and controlled. He would make sure nothing in the area left his notice and, if he could help it, he would do all in his power to reunite the pup with his family.
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