Ashes to Ashes

Fireside · 07-27-2011, 04:46 PM

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Word Count :: ... :: Zalen finds out about his heritage from the ghost of his grandmother. Dated 8/6/11.

Ruby POV

Burned… it was all burned away. The trees were blackened husks, the grasses nothing but dust. A cruel, hot wind swept over the once fertile lands, howling in dismay and agony at the memories and lives lost there. Her spirit flew amongst this wind, what remained of her earthly soul howling with it. This had once been her land. She had lived here, she had loved and fought here. And now it was nothing but a desolate land ravaged by an inferno. Here her spirit had wandered for years, in constant search of life, but finding none she had begun to drift apart even in this form.

There was no energy here and she listed about formless and stupid, unable to form thoughts or words. She was just a entity of burning emotions and memories that would not stop. She had been forgotten it seemed, no wolf heart had memory of her. This earthly part of her yearned for someone’s presence, anyone, but instead she was left to cohort with dirt and decay.

Her spirit now drifted to the outskirts of the land she had once called home and across the threshold she could sense the living, but could not go there, it was beyond her power. The wind wailed her anguish.

Zalen POV

It had been two days now that Zalen had been traveling east. He had passed the borders of Anathema that night he had been attacked the golden wolfess. He recalled how he had searched out Panda to tend to his wounds and instead had found the pregnant coywolf Gemma. Hesitantly and without grace in conversation he had allowed her apply salve and bandage to the bite wound on his back. She had tried to convince her of the more admirable qualities of her race that night, which had both confused and infuriated him. Ever since the death of his mother he had harbored extreme discrimination against coyotes and to him they were nothing more then violent beasts. But now he didn't know what to think, his two run ins with coyotes thus far had left him unscathed. Both white females with wolf in their blood as well, both kind enough to help him. It didn't seem right to their nature. He had left the territories he had known to sort out these thoughts as well as to make himself disappear for a while lest the golden wolfess return with a vengeance.

Zalen had been traveling through a dense wood where the trees seemed to moan as their branches rubbed together in the breeze. The scents here were very old making him realize that no soul had ventured here for some time. He had been gradually moving upwards, crossed a large river, and now the trees were thinning. He smelled something on the air, something unfamiliar. When the tree finally broke he found himself on a cliff face overlooking the territory in front of him. He could not help but to gasp. The world was nothing much a burnt skeleton of a thing as far as he could see. In the setting sun it nearly looked hellish. All that remained were several patches of tree skeletons, blackened. It took a moment for this sudden visage to sink in. If anyone lived here, he wished to meet them to have them explain what had happened. Zalen lifted his muzzle and let a deep howl out into the sky which echoed in the canyon below.

Ruby POV

What had that been? A sound? A sound mixed in to the cries of the wind? Someone was here, a soul had come! But where was he? Gathering all the strength she could she searched out for this unknown being, his howl had given her hope that perhaps life was beginning to return. It did not take her long, she found his ebony form standing high upon a cliff face. She could feel his heat as her spirit moved around him. Then she saw it. The mark upon his eye and her whole existence seemed to expand. Quickly, she forced herself to rush through his body. It was so hot! Like the fires of hell. But as she exited she knew that he was her own flesh and blood. Mephiz had had a daughter and that daughter in turn had begotten this wolf who still carried on The Mark. What little was left of her soul erupted with joy and she found the ability to pull life essence from the trees, brush, and even him, to develop a body which he could see. She had so much to tell him!

Zalen POV

Silence fell around him like a blanket after he called out. Nothing but the wind stirred. He was about to turn to leave, to go back to the moaning wood to rest when the breeze picked up and swirled around him. He was confused because this breeze only seemed to move around him and leave the tree tops above unmoving. Odd. Then suddenly there was a chill that ran through his body like none he had ever experienced, it was if someone had taking his blood and replaced it with ice water. He shuddered and as quickly as it had come the chill had dissipated. What had that been? And then suddenly, he saw something not but a yard in front of him. It looked like a glowing mist at first, like something you would see on a fall morning. But then it began to take shape, grow, and Zalen felt him back up in fear. And then just moments later, in front of him soon a fully formed wolfess, slightly transparent, fur hinting of color but otherwise gossamer. Zalen gaped in shock. It was a ghost!

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