This is set somewhat after 'The Wayfarer', but since it's slow and my choice responder is busy, I started this one :3 Also, Ralla is in optime form now~ ALSO: This is backdated to September 4, 2010

Before she had heard, smelled, or saw the newcomer, Ralla knew someone was coming.

For the past few days, Ralla had been gathering berries--mostly blueberries, since she didn't want to add poison ones to the supply--and was actually feeling a little lonely around the AniWaya village. She sometimes saw one or two others walking around, but they either looked busy or she was a little nervous to initiate a conversation by herself. Even though this was her new home, she still felt a little alienated. She had been spending her nights in the branches of a tree; unknowing of whether she was welcome in a building or hut. It wasn't that she was uncomfortable sleeping in trees; rather, winter was coming, and the window to build permanant shelter was closing quickly. The reason for her midnight escapade had been precisely because she had heard the voice of the moon whisper in her dreams.

Water...

The moon was waning gibbous and let off a bright glow that filtered lazily through the trees. Only the Great Fire was brighter, and the warmth emanating from it warmed more than the snow-white wolfess's lithe body. But her vision came when she went to gather water at the branching creek from Adagio Creek. The water was pure in Ralla's mouth as she cupped her hands to bring the liquid to her parched lips, but when she looked down, she had to do a double take to make sure that it was her own reflection shimmering in the running waters. And it wasn't. In fact, there was only a shadowy outline of a wolf where her reflection should have been; the only thing clear was grey eyes. Unlike signs, visions that Ralla saw were not always so easily definable, and it quickly dissipated back into reality, where her own incredulous eyes stared back at her. But when she heard a long howl in the night and the running of paws, she twitched her ears to the direction of the sound.

Chief Dawali went out earlier and hasn't returned... Is that him? Getting up, Ralla began to run to the source of the sound on lengthy limbs. As she neared, she did not recognize Chief Dawali's pace or see his russet fur glean in the moonlight. Rather, the sound was different, and the scent hinting of un-AniWayan. A newcomer?

Moon walks. "Moon talks." Moon thinks.

A note for future reference: as I've been told many times, this is not a fantasy rpg, hence all supernatural things either occur only in the character's head or do not exist. The only reason Ralla has all these visions is because she bases them around the star charts and what they mean for anyone under a certain sign. Because of her intense belief in this, she tends to see distorted images and 'imagines' her feelings. Of course, they are not real; chances are, in real life, she really DID smell/hear Aithne coming before her dream, and her mind created for her a vision to explain it. This could also be called primal intuition. I noticed in your other post that Aithne had been trained by a seer, so I'm just letting you know now before someone else does that no wolf can be a powerhouse or all-knowing. ALSO: the AniWaya tribe has beings called Spirit Guides that can only be received after a set amount of time. These guides can either be invisible or visible depending on what the character wants, so I don't know the specifics around that other than what I've read :3

Her pursuing run had led her back to the AniWaya camp, and although she did not see Chief Dawali--his scent being somewhat faint--the newcomer stood looking around, panting heavily. It was another female, and she seemed to have as much enthusiasm as Ralla did her first day in the camp. The wolfess was in her lupus form, and Ralla felt as if she would intimidate the newcomer if she decided to greet her in her optime. Bending forward to rest her paws on the loamy earth, Ralla felt her bones crack and fuse together as they began to fit into her own lupus form. None the less gangly of limb, it wasn't Ralla's fault that--by height of her legs--she was still taller than the newcomer. It had taken a minute or two, but the wolfess was still there, and Ralla began to pad forward.

"Hello,"she began. "My name is Ralla. Welcome to AniWaya." Although she was but a newbie herself, Ralla felt as if no newcomer should be left to wander the grounds alone his or her first day (or night) at the village. The wolfess turned her head to Ralla's voice, and Ralla had to catch herself from making a rude face when she noticed the color of the wolfess's eyes. Grey... Just like her vision from the moon. And not only was she surprised by the eye color, but there was a tiny tug of energy coming from the stranger; faint, but still there. It wasn't like the energy she had sensed around Chief Dawali her first day; rather, it came from the wolfess herself. It was like an aura of kindred knowledge.

Moon walks. "Moon talks." Moon thinks.

A note for future reference: if there are two parts to a post you are replying to, it's best to respond to both and play along with the previous post's actions. That way it doesn't seem like anyone's crazy and just imaging their character said something that never happened o.0

The wolfess before her was thin and ragged; ribs showing and tiny specks of blood dotting the area around her paws as she lowered herself--making Ralla startle with the show of submission even though she herself was so new. Without even asking, Ralla began to herd the newcomer to the tree which she had been sleeping her nights in. Clawing up the grooved bark of the large red oak tree growing on the outskirt of the village, Ralla came back down with her share of berries from her earlier harvest. The ripe blueberries brimmed the top of the woven basket--that Ralla had found no one asked for and hence concluded she could put to better use--as she offered them to the new wolfess. "I'm sorry about your wounds... I don't know what to put on them, so if you can wait, we can go see our Kunikoti. Oh, but wait... She's gone right now... Um... What was it for burns...?" Seeming to have ventured off into her own little world, Ralla mulled over the unfortunate situation where she failed as a previous Shaman in that she couldn't remember herbs correctly and that she had yet to even meet their Kunikoti (who Dawali had first explained to her as a Medicine Man/Woman).

Wait... Chief Dawali! Ralla had seen him experimenting with herbs a few days ago; he probably knew medicine better than she! But...she also didn't want to bother her Chief until morning, now that he had already travelled and was likely tired. It was all so complicated for the indecisive wolfess!

The decision whether or not to fetch herbs--that Ralla still couldn't remember--was decided for her when the new wolfess, Aithne, stated that she only needed fresh bandages and water. Ralla remembered seeing some cloth in the storage hut earlier that day when she had been collecting more berries, and 'borrowing' a bowl from one of the abandoned huts didn't seem like such a bad thing.

"If you wait here, I can get the cloth and water," she said as she braced herself to shift. Despite the assurances from Aithne that she was fine, the wounds still needed tending. In the light of the fire before they had traveled away, Ralla had seen the grey sheen of Aithne's coat--even dull with malnourishment--appeared to shimmer in and out of the silver color spectrum. Her grey eyes were alight with fire even as her body projected a different image, and Ralla could not help but let her own smile reach her forest-green eyes as she felt the joints in her knees and paws pop and lengthen. She had transformed not a few minutes ago to appear less threatening to the wolfess, but now she needed the benefits of opposable thumbs to help her fetch the items she required.

"I'll be right back!" Making a 'stay' motion with her hands, she immediatly rushed off on all fours for the northwest part of the village to the storage hut. She was fastest in this, her optime form, because her limbs were still lengthy but her strength enhanced (even if not by much). It was not long before she came upon the storage hut and gathered the necessary gauze before taking off to scavenge the buildings for a bowl. She only hoped it wouldn't take too long; she had left Aithne without much explanation of her motives and with a basketfull of blueberries; but the berries could only feed the newcomer for so long before they were gone, and Ralla didn't want to keep her waiting. In fact, she was most excited because not only did she meet a new potential friend and packmate, but that pull of energy from her...that vision of grey eyes...

What kind of story does she have to tell?

Moon walks. "Moon talks." Moon thinks.