|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 9:21 pm
 Kai had done a terrible thing.
In his time away from Kapu'Moana, the wolf had done his fair share of bone-headed maneuvering. He'd accidentally taunted a bear, an amazon, and an angry father. He'd been torn open. He'd nearly starved. He'd angered more wolves than he could count, and hardly ever on purpose.
But this time...well, this time Kai had really gone and screwed it all up.
He had cared so deeply for Monaeka. She'd really been his best friend, maybe the best friend he'd ever had. And that he'd so bone-headedly blundered through their...interaction...and she was obviously so hurt afterwards...oh, it was worse than he could bear to think about.
The look in her eyes. That was the worst part. The way she looked at him, after.
Part of him wanted to turn right back around and go talk to her again. But what would he say? What could he possibly say that could make up for...well, whatever had transpired.
He sighed. Maybe he'd go give Wren a visit. Or just wander a bit, outside the borders, until all this had blown over. Could Mon stay mad at him forever? He really didn't know. Oh, what a mess...
Half-distracted, the blue wolf turned to make his way in the general direction he'd last seen his thief-loner friend, thinking perhaps she might have some advice for him.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 9:49 pm
 Nose to ground, ears swept forward, eyes scanning the area, Kamiya loped forward at ever-increasing speeds. She was close this time. She could feel it. No, more importantly, she could smell it. His scent was everywhere here, on the ground, in the air. Clearly, the prince had spent a lot of time here. Lived here, maybe. Probably.
A thrill of excitement ran down her spine and she put on another burst of speed. It was all over. At long last, she had finally succeeded.
Funny, really, how things change.
When Kami had first left Kapu'Moana, she had no intentions of returning. She had been so excited at the prospect of running away, of seeing the world, of escaping the bonds of slavery and exploring.
But...well...the world wasn't all it was cracked up to be. That was the simple truth of it. The more she experienced the outside world, the more she wanted to go home where things were simple.
Unfortunately, going home wasn't so easy. If she came home by herself, she'd be punished. She might even be executed, depending how angry the king had become in her absence. She had to have the prince in tow, or it was all for naught.
And now, finally, at long last....she had him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:45 pm
Kai paused, brow furrowing. What was that? Was there someone there? He could swear he'd caught a scent on the air, but it couldn't be real. It was a salty, briny scent...a scent like the winds back home.
Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone.
Ah well. Hallucinations. Homesickness, perhaps. Hard to believe that he could be homesick for a world he no longer called home...but, well, life was mysterious that way.
He had a good life, here. Or, at least, he'd had a good life, before he'd gone and screwed things up with Mon and lost one of his only friends. Well, at least he still had Verdauga, for the most part, though in truth Kai wasn't all that sure that he and his alpha were quite on the same page. Oh, he wanted to like Verdauga well enough. But all the earnestness in the world could only get one so far.
There it was again, that odd smell. Why was he thinking about home? It's not like he had any friends or family that he desperately missed. Honestly...well, had Kai ever really had friends back home? It was hard to say, really. Everyone had been nice to him...but then, everyone needed to be nice to him.
That was one of the reasons he'd left -- he couldn't deal with the fakeness, with the never knowing if anyone truly cared for him, or only for his position.
So strange, then, that he'd have such a hard time making friends out in the world. He'd never thought he was such a bad wolf...but, perhaps, he was wrong....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:35 am
Ah -- and there he was.
It was anticlimactic, almost, after all these long months of searching. She fell to her belly and crept into the undergrowth, watching him with intent pale blue eyes.
It occurred to her at precisely that moment that she had absolutely no idea what she was going to do next.
She had been so fixated on finding Kai that the next step had never even occurred to her. Should she go up to him? Talk to him? Beg him to come back with her? Threaten? Knock him out and drag him? So many options, and she had no idea which was the right one.
Suddenly, she rather wished she hadn't left all of her companions behind. Taking Kai by force would be much easier with a couple of others at her back, even if they were often quite useless...well, the butterfly-chap looked like he might know his way around a fight, and Marion was big enough to take down anybody. And the brothers, surely they could have helped.
But she didn't have anyone with her, because she'd run off half-cocked and now she was all alone.
Great.
Kamiya sighed. If she had to take him down all by herself, she would. But she'd try to talk to him, first, perhaps...
The petite orange wolf wound her way out of the shadows, approaching the other with deference. "...Prince Kailani?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 1:04 am
Kai nearly jumped out of his skin.
He was so bad at sensing others around him! He'd gotten marginally better at it, but at the end of the day he was still so oblivious, and so very easy to sneak up on. One of these days some ill-meaning wolf was going to come and slit his throat in his sleep....
....did she just call him Prince Kailani?
He wheeled around to stare at the wolf who addressed him. She was small, but well-muscled, and he could tell from the looks of her that she had lived a working life -- unlike himself. His ears pinned back. Hadn't Wren told him someone was looking for him? He remembered her warning, and now wished he could remember it a bit better.
"Um...yes?" He said, and then thought too late that maybe he should be trying to conceal his identity. Oops. "I...I'm sorry. I don't believe I know you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:37 am
She stared at him for a moment, a little baffled as to how to even begin to respond to that. Here she was, devoting all of her damn time to finding this wolf...and he didn't even know who she was. How fitting. How tragically ironic. She nearly laughed. "You wouldn't, I suppose," she said, and sighed.
She really wanted to slap him. But she resisted the urge.
"I've been looking for you. My name is Kamiya. I was a scout, born of a slave, in Kapu'Moana."
She paused a moment before continuing. "I left with a search party, to retrieve you and bring you home. We became separated on the path." Well, she'd slipped away from them, but that was beside the point now. "And now I've come to bring you home."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:05 pm
Kai blinked, looking her over. She was...wow. How did he not know that? How did he not recognize her? For a moment he stood dumbfounded and ashamed. He'd never wanted the life of a prince -- never chosen it for himself -- but until that precise moment he'd never realized how bad he was at it. All that time he'd wanted away from the job because he hated it. But it had never occurred to him that he was just as poor a match for it as it was for him.
"I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head firmly. "I cannot go back with you. I know you've come a long way, and I apologize for all the trouble you've gone to. But it's just not possible."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:17 pm
Not possible? Not possible? Who did he think he was, standing there with that dumbfounded expression, telling her oh-so-politely that her efforts had been wasted? She trembled a little with the effort it took to keep from launching herself at him just then.
"I don't think you understand, Prince,"
"Kai, please."
Her ear flicked. "Prince Kai. I am not here on pleasure." She stared him down -- a difficult task, considering how much smaller she was -- and there was an undertone of a snarl in her voice, a steeliness in her eyes. "Perhaps you have forgotten our ways in your long absence, but I haven't. A crowd of wolves was dispatched to find you, on your father's orders -- on the king's orders. I broke away from them because I thought I wanted to see the world. I don't know what came of them. If they returned empty-handed, if they were lost, if they fell." She paused, for effect, to see if it was even possible to drive the point home. Had he always been such an imbecile? She tried to remember if she'd ever properly known him before. But it didn't matter now.
They weren't real to each other. It was obvious. They were but symbols, pictograms of an old life. And unfortunately, he signified something exceptionally important to her...whereas she signified nothing.
"I thought I wanted to see the world," she repeated. "But I have seen the world, and I don't like it here at all. I want to go home, where things are sensible, where I know my place and wolves walk with a purpose. But I cannot return without you, or your father will have me thrown to the sea for my treason, and you know it as well as I do."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:24 pm
"...Oh."
He hadn't thought of that.
Feeling all the more foolish by the minute, he gazed down at his paws. The slave had chastised him, and rightly so. Not that Kailani had any respect for such rankings. In his eyes, all wolves were equal according to their own merit. That was one of the many reasons he had turned his back on Kapu'Moana in the first place.
But if a wolf was to be judged by its merit, then surely she -- who had clearly come so far and with great purpose -- was a far better wolf than he.
He sighed. He understood the desire to see the world. And, now that he thought about it, he could also see her point about not necessarily wanting it anymore. Not that he himself ever wished to resume the mantle of prince, but...well, he hadn't left on very good terms, really, and the whole thing had been terribly immature, and he did rather miss his father...."But I have a pack, here, that I am helping to build," he muttered, almost guiltily. "I couldn't just leave when the effort was so fresh..." Ah, but couldn't he?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:31 pm
Kamiya sensed his wavering, and pressed her advantage. "You needn't stay long," she said, eagerly. She took a step forward, forced him to meet her vivid blue eyes. "You only have to come with me, so that my efforts proved successful. Can't you see? If I return with you in tow, then I am a hero! I might even be granted a promotion! Head scout! Leader of the raiding parties!" Her eyes shone with excitement at the thought.
For a moment -- just a brief moment -- she thought of her odd assembly of wolves that had taken to following her, and wondered how they would feel about all this. Surely they would be disappointed. None of them would wish to join her pack, she supposed, not that the pack would have much desire for them anyway. And yet....how could she turn down such a possibility? She wanted so desperately to go home...and to be rewarded when she got there. The thought nearly made her salivate.
"Come with me. Let me have my victory. And then speak plainly with your father if you have to, slip away again into the night...whatever it takes, so long as the blame isn't with me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:37 pm
He hesitated again. He couldn't deny, she spoke sensibly enough. He couldn't see any flaws in her reasoning, at any rate.
Although he was very unwilling to meet his father again. But that was just cowardice.
"Just to take you there, and then I come right back," he said, carefully. "I'll be sure to commend your bravery, if you want."
He contemplated whether the pack would be alright without him. He wondered about Monaeka.
....Monaeka.
He twitched, a little. Maybe it was best he leave the pack for awhile, anyway. Allow things to blow over a bit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:47 pm
She had him. She could feel it -- taste it, even. She just had to be careful with how she proceeded, to make sure she didn't spook him. It was like dealing with a deer, she thought. A big, dumb, flighty deer.
Oh, gods. How would he get along with Marion. She didn't even want to think about it.
"It will be a quick journey," she pressed. "I know we both took an indirect route here, but I think with purpose we could travel much faster. Make the whole trip in just a few days." She gave him a plaintive look.
How hopelessly beneath her, to beg this way. But a wolf must do what they must.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:53 pm
"Fine," he said, and sighed, defeated. "I will do you this favor, but only because you have come so far." He hesitated, a moment, uncertainly. He wasn't sure whether he should go back and tell Verdauga about his absence or not. It seemed the right thing to do...but then again, wolves came and went for thieving and other jobs all the time. It seemed a little...needy...to go to him now.
He danced a little from paw to paw, indecisively.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:55 pm
Oh for goodness' sake!
"Come on," she said, then, impatiently, all of her strained politeness crumbling around her. She darted forward to n** at his haunch, to force him into motion. "You've agreed to it, let's GO already. I want to get back to camp by dark so I can explain to the others where I've been and get ready to head out. And besides, the longer you wait here, the sooner you'll chicken out, and then we'll BOTH be in trouble."
Was that a threat? Sure seemed like it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:57 pm
"Ayy!" He yelped as she nipped his haunch, her teeth grazing his skin. He tucked his tail between his legs and lurched forward, shooting her an ugly look. "No need to get physical!" He muttered, but he could tell from the steely look in her eyes that he'd best comply with her wishes.
His ear flicked, however, as he started forward. "Others? I thought you said you'd broken away alone."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
