weary guardians

Vesper · 01-16-2012, 09:54 PM

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SSWM Word Count → 800

The scents of the forest soothed Vesper slightly; her nose fell between her paws, and she blew the snow from her whiskers before nudging her muzzle against the loam underneath, trying to unearth the odors. Her retractable claws dug lightly into the ground, the strain stretching up her shaky limbs with sharp pain that had her almost whimpering. For once, she was glad for the coldness in the shadows of the thick branches overhead, evergreen boughs offering frigid shade that numbed the young woman and the minor cuts she had suffered in the attack. The scrape on her cheek had ceased bleeding for a long time and would likely not even scar.

All these thoughts and sensations whirled through her foggy mind, and she had almost fallen asleep when her friend inhaled and spoke. Her angular head lifted, blue eyes refocusing as her discipline shoved away the weariness that had overtaken her. When her Shepard acknowledged her very real fears, the Infernian trembled with anger. "I couldn't leave her if that happened," she murmured; the vow was mostly to herself and to her comrades back home. The pale tawny luperci had gone through the pain and the fear and wasn't certain that Kiara would be able to survive the transformation with an intact mind. Hell, she was pushing it when she mentioned the arctic wolf's ability to get over the brutal attack itself. She might be underestimating the pack wolf, but it was a very real fear. No one lived the same life of another, and not everyone was conditioned for disasters like this.

Mention of the young wolf's attacker had Vesper trembling again, a growl slipping through clenched teeth. Claws gouging the earth underneath the layer of frost, she stood and lifted her coal-tipped tail. Only the practiced layer of ice cocooning her rage enabled her to stand still rather than attack the nearest inanimate object. Months of training after she'd let her anger take hold of her -- and the training with her new mentor -- managed to cool her temper though she still lashed her tail and met her friend's golden gaze darkly.

"What happened," Vesper echoed. She closed her eyes as if to imagine the scene, but that proved to be too much. She could only remember blood on snow and the rage that filled her when she saw what was happening. Justified rage, she had to tell herself, but something screaming and feral and lusting for the shearing of flesh under her jaws had exploded out of the secui-formed woman.

Her head ached. Shaking it did not help. She nearly collapsed, trying to keep her eyes focused on her friend. The image of another young she-wolf leaped into her mind, one dark, collapsed against a tree, whimpering because her sight was lost. This time, shaking her head did cause her to lose balance, but a quickly thrust-out limb kept her from falling into the snow. She was glad for four legs.

"The bitch was cutting her," the coywolf hissed. "She had a knife and was cutting her." If she ever saw a knife again, it would be too fucking soon. "The dog was completely unharmed. Kiara wouldn't hurt a fly. All I saw was that dog practically carving into her, and -- " Her head throbbed again, and one eye squinted before she huffed in annoyance. Perhaps there were more lingering wounds from the attack than she'd thought; that weapon had brained her pretty hard. All she could hope was that it would pass. "I attacked the dog. I didn't do as much damage as I wanted to" -- for that was an impossibility -- "but I managed to buy Kiara some time to wriggle free. And then we managed to reach Ichika." Her words trailed to a halt, and she sighed, plopping her rear down on the ground.

She had to think realistically now. X'yrin was doing a very good job of keeping calm; she wouldn't want to listen to any more of this babbling. The next step would obviously be to find the assailant and dole out justice, a task that Ves knew she wouldn't be able to do on her own. Hopefully, however, the peaceful pack would be able to see past its ideals; if so, the dog would have hounds on her heels.

"I could identify her if I ever saw her," Vesper muttered. "I think that collie was going to try to track her with her bird. I don't -- I don't know what else we can do right now, other than pray for Kiara." She would pray, too, even if she didn't know who or what she would be praying to. There was a boundary between hope and prayer, and Ves would cross it when she deemed it necessary.

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