Table code, image, and Filler © Jacoby!
OOC// Yayyyy <3
------------------------------------------------------------
There was something in the air, this night.
Deep emerald eyes looked out to the darkness, but saw precious little but the gathering of shadows, clustered together like villains in the creeping rays of dieing light. The young woman felt restless, as if each breeze was a passing herald of something she simply couldn't understand, each whisper of the trees a murmured secret that she wasn't allowed to hear. There was something in the air, this night, and she feared it like the sun feared the moon. There was a tedious niggling at the back of her mind, something sinister and potent with it's irritable skritch skritchings, till the silence beyond the old hotel was too loud for her to bear.
With one final glance towards the towing old building, Alaine shifted into her lupus form, and melted away into the darkness.
Her mother's mind knew of her own son's safety, and though the lingering need to be close to him, to keep him safe from whatever lurked in the atmosphere this eve was pressing intently against all her instincts, the young woman knew in her heart that it was not his life tonight, the darkness, craved. Spindly, gnarled fingers grasped at her thick cream pelt, but the lady's paws were steadfast and firm across the ground. She moves with a fleet determination, driven by something that nobody could possibly name. Months of running, of fearing, of fasting that taught her body how to be lithe and agile, how to avoid the hidden traps that lurked beneath a forest's cloak and waited for unwary beasts. The moon, a giant's round and baleful eye, watched her with eery intensity. Alaine could feel it;s gaze prickling along her spine, and the dog hastened to the ground, ran just that little bit faster.
Time was slipping away. From what? The question remained unanswered, though the statement was just as urgent. Time was slipping away; and she knew, she just knew, that whatever she was searching for had to be found before the sun was fully vanquished, before the spears of midnight could descend upon their world like brazen and evil lightning. A root grappled with her paw, and the she-dog yelped softly, but ignored the sting in her limb to continue onwards, always forward.
The smell of salt air stung her nostrils, and the beautiful woman fought through the tangle of bushes until she could hear the lapping of the ocean. Of a sudden, it's might seemed to hold the trees back, and their sticky grasp reluctantly released her onto the sandy beach.
Silence. Lap, lap, lap went the water.
Then a soft cry. Tufted harks perked, and like an avenging angel the young mother burst into action, sprinting across the dunes. Sand flew up at her ivory heels, the last golden rays of sunlight dappling across cream pelt and catching in the wild auburn fire of her curled forelock. The quadruped beauty scanned the never-ending sand and water with her sharp, clear emerald eyes, her soul singing out to hear that sound again.
There it is! Fainter now than before. And ahead, just ahead, was a strange round mound and a sodden pile of fur. her heart leaped into her throat, and just as night finally vanquished the sky, Alaine found the little pup alone on the sand.
" Hush, little one. Oh, no..."
Head raised to look anxiously back the way she'd come, the forest having swallowed whatever path the slender young feo had made almost immediately. Her healing skills warned her of the dangers of helping this young thing - she might have a contagious disease - and her common sense warned against action - she will die here, she is too weak to survive - but her mothering heart swallowed such nonsense as soon as it had come. There was no longer any hesitation in her actions; Alaine had made up her mind.
Tongue swept little face clean of sand and grit, made sure her nose was clear of obstruction. Then maw gingerly grasped a sodden ruff, the little girl's measly weight nothing to her rush of adrenaline. Cautiously, she raised the little thing in her maw; there was not point in shifting to her optime form, she would be able to travel much faster with four legs. And with nothing but a red buoy to suggest that anything had ever scarred this stretch of sand and ocean, the woman and the child disappeared back into the forest. Though her lungs screamed in protest of running, though her still-wounded paw-pads broke open and once more began to bleed, the dejavu of the scene was to much to resist.
Once again Alaine fled the darkness, her heart set on saving an innocent life.
Speak think walk!
[/html]