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 Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 2:48 pm
 "Ombra," Burzum squeaked. He was too young to be bothered by it now, but it would not take long for him to discover that his voice was absurdly light and high-pitched, even for a cub of his extreme youth, and when he did he would quickly come to despise it.
He placed one paw on her rump and flexed his claws into her enough to p***k her skin but not pierce it unless she flinched the wrong way. "It's our time to explore. See? It's all dark and shadowy. Like us!"
He had heard there were things in the wood to be wary of, naturally. Spirits and ghosts, and maybe even gods, but he didn't know what it meant to be wary. He never would, probably. Like his father's family, he would be a creature of the forest, but he already harbored the hope of one day being a reaver in the pride to which their family nominally belonged.
"I know a great place we can go."
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:48 pm
Ombra was sleeping soundly within their tree-den, huddled close to her siblings' and parents' bodies. They were warm and she had been tired from their daytime treks. Unfortunately, she was awoken by a sharp sensation in her fanny and she sat straight up, the only thing visible in the minimal light that escaped into their den being the whites of her eyes.
Quietly she blinked for a few moments, before turning to see who woke her and finding Burzum on the other end of her rump. She frowned heavily and with a small hiss she whacked him. This is what he would get for waking her up in such a bothersome manner.
"You are a ghost," She said quietly, hushing her equally light sounding voice.
She remembered what her mother had told each of them earlier in the day. She was known by the pride as the Forest Ghost, and that each of them were also ghosts as she giggled. But when she had stopped at Ombra and her all-dark brother, she blinked, turned her head and poke their noses saying 'You are the forests shadow'.
"I am the shadow," She mused, stretching out heartily and possibly upper-cutting one of her siblings or parents with her feet in the process.
"... What place?" Ombra asked, getting up to join her brother in his game of intrigue. Their parents had warned them about the dangers of the forest, and how they needed to be respectful...
...Liking to play in the forest was respectful, right?
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:18 pm
The pale cub grimaced at his sister's sound whack. No claws, but still enough force to hurt. A lesson had been learned here: he should back away more quickly after waking Ombra.
"I'm not a ghost," Burzum corrected his sister in a treble grumble. "I am the darkness."
Why his parents had given a cub with a white pelt a name meaning darkness was something of a mystery, but Burzum liked his name as much as he liked his namesake. He liked how well it rumbled and fizzed, and thought it was really a shame that people rarely got to speak their own name aloud.
Burzum liked Ombra's name, too. It suited her, just as he felt Burzum suited him. She had shadowy markings on her face that their Odd-uncle said were not only their father's but also their grandfather's. Odd-uncle was an excellent source of information about a lot of things. He'd learned about this new place from him.
"It used to be a place where another pride lived. A long, long, long time ago. The first pride the Stormborn conquered. No one lives there now, or ever has." He paused for a delicious moment to let the suspense build. "Because it's supposed to be haunted!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 6:37 pm
Ombra listened to her brother's story with scrutiny. It intrigued her, and she liked the idea of a place that hadn't been touched since her birth-pride had taken it over. As quickly as she wondered if the place was devoid of everything, like an abandoned ruin, Burzum mentioned that it was haunted and a glint came over Ombra's dark eyes.
"Haunted?!" She squeaked with delight, although she tried to damper it down as best she could. If their parents heard them, the game would be over and they would not be left out of sight. Their sleeping place would be the most back portion of the tree-den and they'd have to wake everyone up just to go pee.
She sat there for several moments with a blank expression, starring out into the darkness of the forest. This was an opportunity. Both Burzum and Ombra held some semblance of their Stormborn pride when it came to these matters. Tests of will and the need to prove bravery being part of it for Ombra. She was not a fidgety, demur girl like her mother. She liked rough housing games, and the opportunity to take down her siblings. Being tough was fun.
"Yes...," She finally said, looking back to Burzum confidently, "To the haunted!"
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:50 am
"Shh!" he hissed at his sister's delighted squeak.
Burzum's coat rippled as a shiver chased from his skull to his tail. This was going to be so great! But first they had to get out of the den without being stopped. One of them could easily claim they'd just had to go pee, but both of them would have a harder time making that story believable.
"We have to be quiet," he added unnecessarily. Of course Ombra would know this. But Ombra could be kind of mean sometimes, so Burzum took advantage of his opportunities to tell her off.
So that she couldn't swat him again for doing so, Burzum began moving out of their tree-den and into the forest itself. He knew the area around the den well enough, but he had only their Odd-uncle's directions to go by after a point. He hoped he would manage to orient himself correctly from the outset, or else they'd end up badly lost.
"We're supposed to go west until we hear running water," he whispered outside the den.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 6:53 pm
Ombra would roll her eyes, but she was far too entertained by this haunted lands story to take her brother's chiding as a jab towards her and simply assumed she was louder than she intended to be. She did not want to risk messing up this opportunity, especially considering a possible mess-up meant they'd be closely watched for quite some time.
She followed quietly after her brother, trusting his directions. He was the one who their uncle had told the location to, so only he would know where to go and she highly doubted that Burzum would mess it up. This was way too interesting to mess up.
When they both managed to get out of the den, Ombra waited patiently for Burzum's next command. West until running water... Where was west again?
"West?" She asked.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:05 pm
"Yes," Burzum agreed, feeling a little disappointed. He had been hoping, with all her strong opinions, Ombra might want to take charge and determine which direction they ought to go first. In the woods in the dark, Burzum wasn't really sure which direction was which. He did know where the stream was though, and maybe that was what their Odd-uncle had meant.
"I think that means toward the stream, but only within hearing distance of it." Which seemed sort of unusual. Why not just follow the stream itself? Never having tried it, Burzum had no way of knowing that the stream was usually patrolled by a reaver whose business it was to keep outlanders from trying to make their way upstream and into the Stormborn territory. But Odd had known that when he was giving his directions, and taken into account that the reaver would probably take it upon himself to stop cubs from wandering out, too.
Taking a gamble that their uncle had meant the stream, Burzum started off in that direction. It would've been a lot easier if he could have seen the sun, or the moon, or even the stars, but the cover was too dense for that. Which was just how he liked it, he reminded himself. Dark, like him. On the inside anyway.
"I wonder if he meant his hearing or mine," he mused as they walked. Burzum already knew from experience that Odd's hearing was far better than his. "And whether that makes a difference."
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"Ombra," Burzum squeaked. He was too young to be bothered by it now, but it would not take long for him to discover that his voice was absurdly light and high-pitched, even for a cub of his extreme youth, and when he did he would quickly come to despise it.
