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indent Melisande awoke, lifting her head up in the twilight. It had been such a nice nap in the cool shade. It was chilly next to the river, but it was not snowing, and curling up to sleep for a while under that bright orb in the sky had made her warm from the inside out. She blinked a few times, seeing that it was later in the evening now, although a little light still shined through the trees. But she didn't get up yet, because she wasn't sure what had awaken her. It was possible that it was just a dream, but she'd thought she had heard some sort of scuffling. She looked around quietly. There it was again, the noise. So she hadn't been imagining it.
indent Soon enough a little cougar came out of the brush. He was fairly small, and didn't look too harmful. He probably wasn't even a year old, but still she stayed quiet. She was the same pure white as the snow, and very small herself.. perhaps he wouldn't see her. Then another creature of almost the exact stature and appearance came up behind him, and they proceeded to wrestle together. Brothers, excellent. She looked this way and that, wondering where she could flee to. She doubted they cared about her, but she didn't want to be caught in the middle of anything.
indent Then one of them pricked its ears up, sniffing the air curiously. Shit, she thought. It came over to where she was, and now noticed that there was a little wolven form in the snow. He reached out a paw to bat at her, and she instinctively pulled back, snarling. Both of the cats snarled back... louder. That was her cue to run. She fled as quickly as she could, towards the Yawrah. She wasn't sure how being by the river would help her, but if nothing else maybe she could throw one of them into the freezing waters.
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Skoll was friends with Melisande's mom! Just figured that out.
He had been kneeling by the Yawrah, taking his fill, when he saw three figures off in the distance. They all looked diminutive, though they were still some distance off, but he could clearly make out the forms of a wolf and two pumas. The mountain lions weren't full grown, he could tell by their proportions, probably not even ready to head out on their own yet. What were they doing away from their mother?
Rising from his kneel, he began to run to meet them. It was rather comical, two cougar-cubs chasing a wolf, but the fleeing female was small for a wolf, and the cats were a nasty breed to mess with. Had they been older, he may have been unable to deal with two of them. They were usually smart enough to back off from someone as big as he was, but a mixture of feline arrogance and lethal natural weapons often made them confident enough to test their luck, and if he were only armed with his own natural weapons, two full-grown cougars would be right to be confident of their chances. Still, against the two juveniles, a werewolf of his size was overkill. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to sit back and let them have their fun with a wolfess of Bleeding Souls.
The eight foot bronze werewolf planted his feet as Melisande ran past him, and released a menacing growl deeper and more sonorous than either of the cats could yet create. His scarred and ravaged visage warped into a fierce snarl around his fangs as his hackles bristled. Even though his life wasn't in danger against the small cats, he still would prefer not to fight them. Unlike wolves, every size cat had the potential to hurt a larger animal without much problem. They with lithe and their claws were sharp enough to pierce the skin with no effort at all. They weren't all equally dangerous, but came out of a fight with any cat a scratching post. Disheartened, one of the cats took flight for several paces before turning back to look at its brother, urging him to follow. The other cat hissed back, though, giving no ground, though it would not approach any closer. The two were at a standoff, then: the small feline that breached no more than seventy pounds, against the six-year-old eight foot monster of a were. The cat was outweighed four times, but his pride was strong, and for half a minute he stayed frozen in place, staring daggers at this interloper.
Skoll drew his war-knife, and took a step forward. The cat broke, fleeing back to his brother, and the two ran back northward, toward the Tranquil Springs where they had made their home. Something must have happened to their mother, Skoll thought, putting his knife away. Two cats of that age shouldn't be on their own, especially not if they're in the habit of accosting wolves. Turning to the tiny white wolfess, he sat down, attempting to make speech less awkward(given his head was so high off the ground), and gave what he hoped was a warm smile, hoping to smooth out the bestial appearance he'd created moments before.
"Are you alright? They didn't hurt you, did they?" The gruffness in his voice wasn't something he could remove, but he hoped she knew he meant well.
~The lyrics are from the best song ever written.
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indent Melisande found herself fleeing exactly into another wolf. He was a were, to be exact, and at first glance looked a lot more like a bear on his hind legs. He was a beast of a creature, and Melis had to talk herself into continuing to go straight. The fear already possessing her heart almost wanted to run the other way, but she didn't have a chance against those two little things and their claws. She would just have to hope that this male was friendly. As she ran past him, he stepped in front of the cats, and she turned back to look. One of them, intelligently, decided it was best to flee. The other, not so intelligently, stood its ground. She winced despite herself, as the huge were took a step forward, expecting a brutal scene. But the cat decided to follow its sibling, and fled.
indent She looked up, feeling incredibly small, in her little wolfish form. She gave a polite bow as he spoke. "I'm alright... thank you so much." She took a moment to catch her breath, looking around warily as though they might be attacking from another angle. "I'm just glad the mother wasn't too close." She might not have been able to outrun a full-grown puma. And she would have felt horrible if this great wolf before her hadn't been able to defeat her. He would have given her a battle for her life, if nothing else, she thought, judging by his scars.
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"That would definitely have made things interesting," he laughed, trying to help her forget the stress of only moments before. "I think I could do pretty well against the mom, but if not, we could always have jumped into the river, cats don't like water." As big as he was, and so armed with his own claws and fangs, all but the largest adult cougars would probably be outmatched, though they could bloody him up so badly he'd be out of commission for a good while. His last fight with a cougar had gone his way, though his friend Gale had come in with a knife just as it was about to take a turn for the worst. He'd been in halfling form then, and was just lucky that he'd been able to push the advantage of his mass for as long as he had.
"So, what's your name little one? Seems like I see a lot of white wolves coming out of Clouded Tears." The last he could remember was Bellus, and he'd met Colibri before that. He didn't really have that much experience with Clouded Tears, or with Jaded Shadows for that matter. It was hard to believe he'd been here for three years and traveled so little. Friends though he'd met in most places, he had never gone deeply into any pack territory other than his own.
~The lyrics are from the best song ever written.
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indent Melisande felt like she needed to learn to breathe again. She gasped and laughed at the same time, then tried to slow herself down. Her heart was still racing, but this guy was calm. He was nice and calm and seemed utterly friendly, having forgotten about the whole ordeal like it was a cake walk, and he was on to introductions. She never would have remembered to do that. Little one, he called her. She didn't mind being so small, and took no offense.
indent "Yeah, most of us are related, too. I'm Melisande Sadira." She took a seat, beginning to calm down herself, and suddenly realizing she should thank this guy for probably saving her life, if not just a lot of trouble. Without him she'd have run and either fallen down or creatively diverted their attention to something else. She doubted she would have made it, as sad a fact as it was. "Thank you so much for that... I don't know what I could do in return, mister... ?" She waited, hoping he would fill his own name in for her.
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Sorry for the wait, school work is picking up as the quarter comes to a close.
"Skoll," he said amiably. As she spoke, he realized that she really wasn't so little as he'd thought...she was full-grown at least. She seemed to take the title in stride, nevertheless, and forge on through the conversation. He would shift down to make her more comfortable, but it was damnably difficult to get his bag to fit again once unshifted, pulling it onto his back without having the contents spill out.
"I haven't met too many from Clouded Tears, though. Bellus and Colibri are prominent in my mind from some time ago, met a guy named Laruku not long ago... I may have met one or two more, but that still isn't much considering how long I've been around here." He regretted having spent so little time with Bellus, he had hit it off with her pretty well, and they both shared how they missed the north. They had spent a night talking under the moon and with the scent of a northern wind on the air, but he hadn't been of a mind to spend too much time loitering around and reminiscing. He had a job to do back then, and the protection of Storm took precedence over all else. He had not let friendships interfere with his duties more than a few times a week, and his social networking reflected the price of such a lifestyle. Colibri he had met on two occasions, but he hadn't smelled either of them in quite some time, and he suspected that they had moved on, since he'd heard no word of their deaths.
"As for that, think nothing of it, Melisande. I've been fighting since I was one and a half years old, it's no big thing for me anymore." He smiled to her, before looking off the way the cougars had fled, wondering if he should chase them out of Bleeding Souls now before they could grow up into a more potent threat. Dismissing the thought for the present, he turned back to their conversation. "I'm a Storm wolf, though the scent might not be strong on me yet. I lived there for a long time once, and am just now coming back after a long time away."
~The lyrics are from the best song ever written.
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indent Melisande had met Bellus, she was sure, but Laruku and Colibri were two people she knew. In fact, she had to know them, one was her mother, and the other... well, she wasn't sure anymore. No one was really all that sure what Laruku was, but she'd once thought he was her brother. Now he was her leader, and someone who she felt was just a little closer than a regular friend. She shook thoughts of both of the wolves out of her mind, suddenly realizing that she didn't know her mother all that well, and didn't even know where she was anymore. Not that anyone had ever known were Colibri was... but, she supposed, she sometimes wished she would check in every so often.
indent "Colibri's my mother... I know Laruku pretty well too, or used to anyway." Melisande smiled, feeling a lot more at ease now, and absently expressed a little bit of jealousy when Skoll said the next thing. "Oh wow... I just wish I could defend myself, let alone fight like that." The way he talked about it, he made it seem like less of a sport or hobby and a little bit more like an art. That was certainly something she could relate to. And the last statement, she simply nodded her understanding to. Melisande had done a little bit of coming and going herself, but she liked to think that she was here to stay for now. Neither time that she'd left had she found what she was looking for, and was honestly still catching up to this place from her last absence. Not that she'd had many... only two, which was far more than she could say for Colibri, or probably even her own father.
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I apologize for the wait. School gave me a lot to do >.<
"Oh?" It was strange to see the daughter of a friend, a daughter whose birth he'd heard nothing of. It had been similarly strange to hear of Cross's son, Valentine. Hell, he'd come back, and even Phoenix and Iskata had kids. It was certainly strange, and in a way it saddened him. All of his friends were doing this while he was out at war with distant threats, while he was casting his quiet vigil over the Storm border, while he was training or teaching other people how to fight. He was turning seven soon, and something had been nagging at him...the feeling that he had wasted his life. The sand was running lower in his hour-glass, he had seen past the halfway mark of his life, surely, he had taken too much abuse to expect to outlive the average wolf, his being large for his kind wasn't indicative of a long life, either.
"Well, I'm pleased to meet the daughter of a friend, I haven't heard from Colibri in a long time." He would refrain from asking any direct questions. He assumed that she must be alright, the way Melisande had talked about her, and it seemed that she wanted to talk about something else, anyway. Nodding at her words, he smiled as warmly as he could. "They were just scared because of my size. The body language means a lot, too. Those hairs that stand up on the back of your neck when you're angry or scared are doing so to make you look bigger. An old defense employed by our ancestors. Snarling and getting the feral look in your eyes means a lot too if the creature threatening you doesn't want a fight. Bluffing can get you out of a fight if you aren't clearly outmatched, provided your eyes don't give you away."
"Hmm..." Skoll looked down at her curiously, speculating just how feasible the idea forming in his head was. "I could teach you how, if you'd like. Some of the basics, anyway. I've given lessons to three wolves at Bleeding Souls before, it wouldn't be any trouble, provided we could meet near my home in Storm." She had seemed sincere in her interest, he wasn't sure how much she really wanted to learn it, though. Anyway, it could get boring and lonely up on his hill, though he'd learned to cope with both boredom and loneliness long before, it was still nice to have something to look forward to.
~The lyrics are from the best song ever written.
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Ugh, I'm really slow lol.
indent The small white creature listened intensely as her new friend explained a few things about the tactics of intimidation. She'd known a few wolves who knew how to fight, because they had to, but this guy wasn't insane, he wasn't looking for a fight. Skoll was different, and it was easy enough for one to see this. After all, not only did he know how to fight, but how to avoid a fight. For someone like Melis, that was the handiest piece of information she could possibly have.
indent "I think we could work that out... where's your home?" Melisande smiled at his suggestion, suddenly delighted. She loved learning new things, and this was something that it might literally kill her not to learn. She wondered why the lessons had to be near his home. Perhaps he had puppies or something, who knew? She cocked her head and grinned again, jokingly. "Why are you so helpful anyhow? Would you want something in return?"
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Sorry for the wait. Classes and exams are over, I'm back into the swing of rp =)
"Storm," he said, smiling himself. "As for the why, I don't know. I like to help, for one. Not to mention I've spent two years on that pack border already, and it can get a little boring without any company." He didn't know what else to say. The cats were long gone, and now he was sitting here with her. What would she want to know? He doubted she would be interested enough to really dedicate to it, it would take him almost a year to pass on everything he knew, what with the training he himself had received, as well as everything he'd built upon it. The basics would work just fine, he was sure. Wanting to learn self-defense wasn't the same thing as becoming a career-warrior.
"So, are you a lycanthrope? Can you shift?" He studied his arms and hands, the true advantage of the shifter. "There are different ways for fighting on four legs or on two, I don't know what you'd be more comfortable learning." He knew that for his part, he had been very awkward fighting on two legs at first. He had wanted to use his teeth, which Gronnor had taught him (the hard way) was decidedly unwise. Given time, though, six months of arduous training with the old wolf, he had gained a mastery of it, which he later augmented with new ideas, techniques, and a great deal of experience. It was a good thing, too. He should not have survived a lot of the altercations he'd encountered along his journeys, though his own attitude and mentality had often created battle where there was none before. Empower an idealist, and you got pretty rigid standards of how the world should be. He had learned from the pitfalls of his youth, however, and settled down somewhat. He would still fight for the weak and abused when they appeared before him, but he wasn't going to make the world congruent with his vision of justice. There wasn't any way, especially not for one wolf in a world of compromise and sacrifice.
~The lyrics are from the best song ever written.
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indent He liked to help. Melisande smiled at that simple statement. The two of them were, perhaps, not so unlike. In fact, they were much the same except in appearance and brawn. She nodded. Storm, that was all she needed to know. Once she wanted to meet him there, she would go to the borders and wait. Someone would find her, and someone would probably know exactly where to find him.
indent Could she shift? He wanted to know now. She simply replied. "Yes." And then she began to do so. She was almost three years old, and she'd learned to shift late. She never cared much for it, and even when she was doing something artistic that required the dexterity of a thumb, she only shifted the required part of her body, if at all possible. "I'm not quite as comfortable like this... but I will learn what will help me." She gave an amiable smile up at him. She was taller now, but he still seemed eons above her.
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I figured we could finish this one up, and then have the next one soon, maybe inviting Hannah to take part? Whatever we decide to do, this was fun!
He smiled back down to her. His height was a lot more pronounced here, in Bleeding Souls, a land filled with coyotes, hybrids, and wolves of varied stature. When he was in a warparty, he was surrounded by large wolves, male and female, those of a build for war. Here his eight foot wereform stuck out like a sore thumb, like a looming member of some grim warrior caste he watched over the border of the place he had called home for so long, . He wondered at times whether or not VoidFane had done the same thing when he'd lived in Storm...even without such evident scarring he would have looked twice as terrible as Skoll, and the creature that lived in his mind was more nightmarish still.
"I can teach you on four legs, then. Most fighting around here seems to occur like that, anyway." It would strike one as odd considering the increased level of power present in the were-form, but most people favored their comfort zone when facing a danger, and when it came to fighting, a wolf's most reliable instincts were geared for four legs. Not to mention, most of them preferred their four-legged form for casual day to day activities, and fighting was rarely planned for. Looking off toward Storm, he got the itch that signified he had been away for too long. If he was going to live there, he was going to carry out sentry duties, whether they were yet officially his or not. If he was to accept the role of guardian, he needed to be there most of the time. "Drop by any time. I'm heading back for now, but if you go to the south-eastern corner of the territory, I'll be the first to pick up your scent, and we can train. Try to catch me in the blue of the early morning, that's the best time, and when I wake up to train myself."
~The lyrics are from the best song ever written.
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