They're All Lies

Scorpius D'Angelo · 01-07-2011, 03:45 AM

[html]

I'm so sorry for holding this up! I got a little disorganized and we planned this just before my little medical issue, so it all kind of slipped my mind (I wish I had a better excuse). I will just cover it all in this post! <3 A thousand pardons. Great thread! wc 1226

Near the outer walls of Anathema's cavernous dens was a little place newly discovered by puppy eyes, and therefor had been recently conquered by Scorpius. It was a mini-den of sorts that had been discovered by Juju during a game of hide-and-seek just a few days prior, and once Scorpius had given up and told his cousin to come out, he reveled in the discovery and claimed the den for himself. There was no thoroughfare from the tiny cave into the winding veins of the pack dens, and it was just a few feet deep which made it all the more unique and cooler. It was also up a small, rocky pathway that was only wide enough for pups to scale, and surely soon enough the pair would be too large to climb up to it. But for now, it was their favorite haven.

While his mother tried to nap Scorpius slipped off and awoke Juju with a good old fashioned ear chomp and demanded that his cousin come play. And by play, he clearly meant that Juju was to stand in the snow while Scorpius guarded their small den and demanded that he guess some password (which poor Juju had no chance of guessing, for if he did Scorpius would just change it, and his cousin would be none the wiser). The coal pup perched proudly upon the little ledge, his chest puffed out and a grin on his face. If Juju stopped trying to guess the magic word, he threatened to come down there and make him guess.

And the magic word never came, but their game did end. The two pups both jerked to attention when the foreign sound of someone singing in some strange tongue reverberated off of the rock. Scorpius's eyes darted out over the powder and spotted the form of the coyote man as he played alongside something that was more fit to eat than play with. He was coming this way. The unexpected threat put a stop to their game as well as Scorpius's temporary frugality.

“Juju, get up here, quick!” He demanded, and the russet pup was up the rocky path in a flash. Scorpius inched aside so his cousin could take shelter, and then backpedaled into the den himself.

He peered over the ledge, nervous as the coyote approached. He and Juju were caught outside of the protective confines of the dens, and he felt anxious and prone in this spot. The pup glanced over his shoulder as though a magical hallway would appear, leading back into the tunnels, but all he saw was Juju. He turned back in time to watch the man meander on into one of the dens.

“Who is it?” Juju whispered, and Scorpus shushed him harshly.

“Don't give us away,” he cautioned his cousin.

The boy crouched in the den and through the thin layer of rock could hear unintelligible voices. The man had met someone, and a moment later the white stag tore from the cave and disappeared over the terrain. Scorpius felt a stronge urge to pursue the creature but had no illusions about his ability to take it down, and remained in his safe perch.

It did not take long, though, for the cub's curiosity to peak. Someone had discovered the intruder, and it was someone from Anathema. And by the sounds of the growling it was someone who was prepared to handle the situation. The charcoal pup scooted closer to the edge of the ledge and peered over, now looking on with increasing interest in place of the fright he felt a moment before. He did not even mind when Juju sidled up next to him and poked his russet nose over to see what was going on, too.

For a moment the pups looked down at the shadowed mouth of the cave and the snow. There were several sets of tracks there that belonged to the pups, the coyote, and the deer. Scorpius was surprised that the prints had not clued the man into their presence as he passed. Black ears swiveled and cupped, working like little satellites to pick up the muddled voices from inside. He could not understand the man at all, but the other voice was familiar. His red eyes bulged when a hulking, dark figure emerged from the depths of Anathema, and with him the man known as Theodore dragged the infiltrator. The boys watched as Theodore's large paws trampled over their tracks, and the man's body dug a deep rivulet in the snow, further concealing the pups' paw prints.

The cousins stared on in morbid fascination as Theodore ripped at the man's ear and his crimson lifeblood began to trail through his fur. Scorpius swallowed hard, and shushed Juju again as the red pup was about to say something more. “Don't ask me any questions, I don't know either. Just shut up. They'll hear us!” He scolded harshly, as low as possible. Luckily, his words were drowned out by the coyote's cries, and only Juju could make them out.

As the ordeal continued, both Scopius and Juju took on similar expressions. Their ears laid back and their eyes went wide, their little jaws hanging slack in surprised O's. This was certainly a sight! 'So Inferni sent you to spy on us did they?' Theodore's words rolled over the stone and to the boy's ears. The pups looked at each other for a moment, sharing a shocked glance, and then turned back to the scene.

“Come on, lets get a closer look,” Scorpius murmured to his cousin, and then slipped past him and made a speedy descent. He landed in the snow just in time to see his mother's ivory form streak out of the den. He hugged the rocks, keeping low and out of sight, afraid of getting in trouble, but she had her sights set on the immediate threat to her pack and jogged right past his hiding place. Juju was soon next to him, though he pushed himself protectively into his cousin's path.

So, this was a spy? A spy from Inferni. Scorpius knew enough to understand that Inferni was another pack, but nothing more. The boy stood erect, enticed and enthralled by the scene that played out before him. Now, with both Theodore and Naniko here, he no longer felt afraid or unsafe. He drank down the action like a man at a desert oasis. This was new, this was thrilling, and this was primal. He finally could suppress his fascination no longer and began to inch away from his hiding spot and out into the open, trying to gain a closer perspective on the scene. The man was lying limp now, his ear gone and blood matting his fur and melting the snow beneath him, and Naniko exchanged quick words with Theodore...

He started as Juju bumped into his rump. He had nearly forgotten about his cousin, and jerked his head around to shoot him an angry glare. “Watch it! He yelped at the rusty puppy, and all at once he had blown their cover. His gaze flicked back to the scene and to the three forms before him. The man looked like he was asleep now. Scorpius could not (yet) tell the difference between the sleeping, the unconscious, and the dead.

Login




Remember me Lost Password?