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Why hadn’t he heard anything? Where had his father gone to? Blue eyes snapped opened and searched the walls of the den, hoping to see a large chocolate form hiding them from view. But no, there was nothing. He could feel something happening, a tingling in the back of his throat. Something wasn’t right. Some was just not right.
Grabbing his jeans, he slowly yet deliberating slid them up over his hips. He wasn’t sure what is was that had woken him, but that strange feeling still lingered on the air. That, and the faint scent of smoke – brush burning. It was a different smell than the fires that many used for cooking. This didn’t smell as sweet, as if it were waiting to wrap its fingers around any unfortunate creature’s throat and grasp the life from it.
He moved towards the entrance, remaining skeptical and cautious, though not realizing it would be in his best interest to work fast. He had missed the warning calls – the alerts that had been sent out. Much like when he was born, Icarus was naïve and defenseless in the world he had been submitted too. Had he known that Storm was now being vanquished by the flames of revolution, he would have sought to find another way to flee before it was too late.
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[html] [/html]It was the sound of the crackling fire that had woken Beppe, not the heavy smoke. Savage snaps and whistles had permeated through his dreaming, tearing away the ghosts of strange memories. The moment he had awoken, he could remember an image of Empusa, still as young as when he had met her, fading behind a shimmery curtain of dusk and fog. Maria and Jasper were there too, but he did not see them, only knew they were there standing behind him.
As he lifted his head from his strange dreaming, he plunged himself into the heavy layer of smoke that was making its way to the ground. It took him a moment, but he recognised what it was. A small fire, it seemed, had expanded to fill all of the forest, consuming all the trees and the dry bushes that lay around him. His heart was caught in his throat for a moment, and he panicked, leaping up and circling a few times. He didn't know where his mother was, and she was injured. In his head he organized his priorities. 1) Find mother; 2) Find safety. The method he would go about doing these seemed rather elusive at the time, but really there was only one way to start.
The territories that he lived close to seemed to all have melded into one, united beneath a large cap of flame, a veil of smoke. He wandered outwards, disoriented and unable to think straight. It was both the shock and the smoke beffudling the boy, and though the shock might wear off the smoke was only getting denser. Breathing was tricky and he had to go slowly, keeping his head to the ground to avoid the soot.
Beppe almost collided with another body, unwittingly having gone up towards the entrance of someone's den, and stopped himself moments before his head struck the other creature's side. The other seemed familiar, though decidedly different. Its scent was undecipherable beneath the smell of ash. Either way, they were in it together, might as well try to find a way as a team. Two heads were better than one, after all. The other seemed to be rather indecisive about what to do, as well, and he wouldn't want anyone to be left any longer than they had to. "Hey," he called loudly over the fire, hoping the other would hear him. [html] [/html]
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When he emerged from the den, the world he once knew was no where to be seen. His nervous hands clenched at his hips, finding comfort in wrapping their fingers in the cloth. He couldn’t see anything, and the smell was burning the back of his throat more than it had when he was inside. Still, he knew he had to find his father and the others. It was just, where was he going to start? He had no idea if they had already gotten to safety, or if anyone was even around still.
Raising a hand, he cupped it over his mouth and nose as to try and prevent the sickening smell from curling inside. Not more than a moment after, another body almost collided with his, and Icarus had to blink his eyes vigorously in order to prevent them from feeling as if they were burning, and to clearly see just who it was.
"Beppe?" Was this the wolf that had helped Icarus once search for the king of all rabbity kings? What was he doing here? "We need to get out of here", he informed him, as if he didn’t already know. Blinking and taking a few steps forward, Icarus could feel the panic that was creeping up his spine.
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The amber wolf skidded to a halt when she reached what she felt was the old dens of Storm. Tears streamed from her eyes now and the air was filled with smoke. She could feel a bit of heat now from the fire, and she walked forward. Her ears pricked suddenly as she heard a voice through the fire’s song. Anderung didn’t realize that the smoke was muffling the sound and began to run toward where she had heard it. She had only taken a few paces before she slammed into another wolf.*
Anderung dropped to the ground in a daze. The combination of smoke in her lungs and mouth and the force of the impact had made her head spin. Shapes and colors were all blending together. She was aware of a dark shape. Squinting her violet eyes she looked up at the other and saw two fiery eyes. ”Beppe!” Her voice was filled with shock and confusion. What in the world was Beppe doing here? Wasn’t he from Clouded Tears?*
ooc
1st* If this is too much powerplay, just tell me and I'll change the post.
2nd* I guess they will have to discus that in the topic.
"Hope you don't mind me joining."
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i fought in the old revolution
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Perhaps Beppe's dreams of the wolves he had met when he first came to North America had sent him back in time, because for a few moments he struggled to connect this future image of Icarus with the one he had hunted with months ago. His brain was temporarily disconnected from the scenario, and he almost commented on how much the other had grown. "Hi, Icarus, yes," he said, squinting to see if he could make any landmarks through the cloud of smoke. The boy felt a little sense of relief that he had found someone he would consider a friend, though amidst the blaze of the fire a little relief was not enough.
He struggled to orient himself, tried to find some gap in the smoke, some path to salvation. Beneath the red haze of it all, the blackened air, a faint silhouette of the mountains was plastered on the crimson sky. He was drawn to it almost innately, and though it didn't occur to him it was probably because Ari had said that lightning would not strike you if you were on the rocks. Perhaps it was the same with the fire. "That way?" he said, nodding in the direction of the mountains. In a moment of his own hesitation, another body collided with his.
It knew his name, though the boy took a couple minutes to make its form out through the smoke. "Hi," he said quickly, unable to form any English sentences greater than a couple words. "This way?" He looked at the girl he had met only a few days ago, looked at Icarus, and took a couple steps to start them off.
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on the side of the ghost and the King
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Anderung. She was another wolf from Storm. So she hadn’t got out of here yet either? Icarus shook his head, wondering if the rest of Storm had abandoned them. Did his father not see him when he awoke and left their den? Icarus was positive he had fallen asleep with his father in the den beside him. How then, had he escaped without so much as letting the young wolf know? The disbelief of this whole situation was almost more than he could handle.
As Beppe took a few steps, Icarus followed after him, determined to get out of Storm. He kept his eyes closed to just small slits, as the smoke scorched them and they watered red. His throat burned and he wondered, would they be able to find their way out? It was hard to tell which way was which, but he figured any where would be better than here. "Let’s get out," he choked, blinking both eyes.
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I Speak this, I
dream this, and I 'think'
this.
You "said this"
ic
Anderung blinked and stood up. She tried to clear her vision but her eyes were burning from the smoke. The she-wolf saw the direction that Beppe was walking in and nodded. She then noticed the second male wolf, Icarus. She couldn’t help but notice how much he looked like his father, Phoenix. ’I wonder if he made it out okay.’
Anderung moved after the two males that were heading off, away from the fire. She had no idea which way was out, but if they went away from the fire, maybe it would be clear enough for them to get some bearings. Meer coughed violently, her eyes burning and voice rough. ”Right, lead on boys.”
"I can't live without my table. ;-;"
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i fought in the old revolution
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For a moment, it seemed like they had picked the right direction. The fire seemed to cool down for a moment before they plunged back into a woodland, where the trees were burning and falling down around them. Beppe felt like he was a soul caught in a suit of armour; his body no longer seemed to be relaying information to his brain, it was simply going. Every few moments he took a sideways glance to make sure his friends were still with him, but other than that his eyes were mere slits. His paws were some other creature's limbs attached to his lump of a body, and he had no control over them.
The heat was even worse than the smoke, the dryness in the air turning his throat, nose and eyes into a desert. It was strange to think that just yesterday these places were standing still, and most likely beautiful. The boy couldn't judge, he had no clue where they were. For a fleeting moment, as he shrunk back into the safe confines of his mind, he regretted not visiting all the territories. It was something he had planned to do, but when he was taking the trip to the further ones he often got distracted on the way. This fire was true testimony to how something could change so drastically in just an instant.
It wasn't just the flames and the smoke that was dangerous now; whole trees were falling around them, creating an obstacle course of hot wood and burning pine needles. Those created the most smoke, and the worst smell. It would be easy to fall here and be lost forever, and Beppe tried his hardest to keep his mind on where his paws were falling. In such a time of panic it was hard for him to train his mind on something that was usually so easy and natural.
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Just wanted you to be aware, Anderung (already told Beppe), that Icarus will eventually die in this thread.
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The group of three took off and Icarus found that his mind had fallen on one thing and one thing only: escaping. He had forgotten (even if momentarily) how his father had left him alone and that assumedly everyone had fled Storm. Instead, his body as a whole was centered entirely around following the others and getting away from here. He couldn’t believe something could be so unbearable. He wanted to peel off his own fur, for it felt almost as if it was suffocating him. He tugged at his jeans as he walked, feeling the warmth from the heat that radiated around them soaking into the fabric. What if they didn’t make it out? What if they caught fire like everything around them?
He knew he would have cried if not for the fact that his eyes were so dry. He could barely keep them open enough to watch were he was going. Everything was effected – each sense. His vision was obscured, his hearing useless (he could only hear the roaring fire), his smell and taste occupied with the thick veil of smoke, and only his sense of touch remained. Even that gave him no comfort. He was helpless.
One foot caught on something, and the youth went tumbling. In his Optime form he was able to have his two hands out to catch himself. Yet, Icarus had them wrapped so closely to his mouth that he didn’t have time to put them out to break his fall. He collided with the earth, feeling the heat intensify. He had tripped over a fallen tree limb, and his jeans were snagged on a branch. Using both hands, he pulled himself free. Climbing to his feet, however, was a bit more difficult. His ankle felt sore as he tried to catch up with the other two. The curtain of smoke had clearly blocked him from view, so neither of his friends had notice him fall behind.
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I Speak this, I
dream this, and I 'think'
this.
You "said this"
ic
Anderung followed Beppe closely. Both of the boys were Luperci and they towered over her. She was happy when it seemed that the fire had grown weaker, and she put her faith in Beppe. That was why when they went into the pine forest, with fiery trees falling all around the, she didn’t stop and try to go around. After a while of dodging falling timber and patches of flame it was obvious she had a certain advantage. Anderung was just a normal wolf, thus didn’t have to worry as much about tripping.
Anderung didn’t notice that Icarus had fallen behind. She was struggling just to see and coughing violently. The air had turned her mouth dry and all she could heard was the crashing and crackling of the forest on fire. It was difficult just to follow Beppe, who was only a few paces infront of her. Her reflexes didn’t work well enough as a tree fell besides her, showering her face with burning wood. She screamed and rubbed her face with both front paws. It hadn’t damaged her eyes, but one of her ears still was burning as she ran to catch up with Beppe. Meer still hadn’t notice the loss of Icarus.
"Okay, that's fine."
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i fought in the old revolution
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The ebony boy's eyes were getting drier and drier, and his sideways checks to make sure they were still all together were getting less and less frequent. He was beginning to feel as if he had a cloth over his head, with only tiny cuts in the fabric to see out of. It was a suffocating, horrible feeling, and as the boy ran all the muscles in his chest were tightened. The frail tears his body pushed out in an attempt to wet his eyes were just whisked along with the parching heat, his fur feeling like a large uncomfortable woolen sweater. Salvation fell somewhere outside of the wall of red, beyond the smoke and the heat. Maybe the whole world was on fire, maybe the crisp Canadian spring that he was just getting used to didn't exist any more.
Time started to be erratic, and some instants went at the speed of light while other time it seemed to take hours before his foot hit the ground again. The girl he was running with screamed, and he instinctively looked to the side to see what had happened. Anderung's hands were plastered over her face, that part of her seemed to be alright at least, but her ear was singed. He was too distracted to pay much attention to that, however, by the fact that he could only see one friend.
He stopped suddenly, only now feeling the pulsing blood in his extremities and the rawness of his paws. There was no way of knowing how long ago Icarus had disappeared, but there was a bird beating its wings in Beppe's chest, a bird that wouldn't rest until he found his friend again. "Icarus," he said as he stopped, the only indication as to why. Coughing, he started to follow their path backwards.
Beppe couldn't get a measure of the distance from where he had stopped to where he found his friend, sprawled out on the ground. The black boy could feel the tug of instinct on his sleeve, its incessant whine insisting, Oh, let's keep going, let's get out. Instead, as his breath heaved in his chest, he stared at Icarus as he started to be engulfed in flames. No more trees seemed to be standing in this area, besides a few charred, skinny corpses, and the ones that had fallen had created a barrier of sorts between Beppe and his friend. Both boys were unable to move, the Italian's shock getting the best of him. There was nothing he could do but look.
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Wow, that was a really awesome post. Thank you both for joining in and making this thread interesting. 
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The flames no longer were just a curtain, but a prison cell. Icarus, searching frantically for an exit, knew that there would be no escaping. By falling behind, he had fallen into hell. Even if his friends did turn back, they wouldn’t be able to do anything save for get themselves singed by the flames.
The smoke seeped through his nostrils, clinging to the life inside of his lungs. With each strained breath, it snared a piece of him and Icarus began to succumb to its lethal intentions. His mind went blank, and the Storm youth tumbled into the ground. Blacked out, he wouldn’t know that his friends would come back for him. He wouldn’t know that this would be the last time he ever saw them.
With the loss of another, the legacy Phoenix and Iskata had hoped to start was wearing thin.
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I Speak this, I
dream this, and I 'think'
this.
You "said this"
ic
Anderung blinked rapidly as Beppe ran past her. She coughed a few times before turning in the direction they had come from. She then realized that Icarus wasn’t around, and she couldn’t remember seeing him much after they had entered the forest. Anderung coughed again and started back in the direction Beppe had taken.
Even though it had only been a few moments, the time walking back through the forest felt like hours. Each breath was getting harder to take, her paws felt like lead weights as she stumbled forward. Her coughing was coming from deep in her chest and shook her whole body. Violet eyes were burning and watering from the smoke and fire. She looked up and just barely made out Beppe, and another faint shape that was behind a wall of flame.
Meer stood and stared at Beppe, who seemed to be frozen in place. ”Beppe, we have to leave! NOW!” Even as she said these words, her voice rough and dry, she knew that they were falling on deaf ears. She heard the cracking of fire in her ears. They had to leave Icarus, or they would also perish. Running out of patience she growled and bit him on the foot paw. However, she didn’t bite him very hard, not enough to seriously hurt him. Just enough so that it would hopefully snap him out of his trance.
"Hehe Already had this typed. x3"
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i fought in the old revolution
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He wanted to tear through the burning trees, rip through them and sling Icarus over his shoulder, but something inside of the Italian boy knew that it was too late. By the time that he had reached the slightly younger boy, sprawled out on the forest's charred floor, Beppe felt like he could already see his soul pulling out of his body. He could imagine the other's eyes flickering before he resigned himself to the flames, and now, knowing that there was nothing he could do, Beppe could only stand and watch, as if trying to drink Icarus' soul in, to preserve just a little of it.
He didn't even realize that Anderung was there beside him, or how he was putting her in danger by running back so far. The boy didn't feel any pain when the girl bit his leg, his body feeling so numbed to everything that was going on outside, but he felt the pressure. It was enough just to remind him of her, reassert that he still had what he felt was purpose. Before turning around to continue running, he gave Icarus' body one last glance. "Goodbye," he said softly, feeling as if it meant something, as if maybe Icarus would hear him. The boy deserved a last farewell.
Without another word, he turned to follow Anderung. The battle was still not over, though Beppe felt as if he would quite like to sit down on the ground, curl up into a cozy ball and let the horrible heat lull him into a sleep. Perhaps, if he didn't have someone else with him, he would. Anderung would be all alone if he decided not to go any further, and he didn't want to do what he considered a diservice to her, as well.
The flames that came close enough to singe his fur didn't feel like anything anymore. Like when the girl had bit him, he felt only a bit of pressure, a numbed sensation. His throat was dry and felt cracked into so many little pieces, but his mind had given up on registering the pain. His brain felt detatched from his body, from everything around him. Eyes set forward, he followed Anderung through the flames thoughtlessly, not even hoping that her intuition was strong enough to get them out of the great fire and onto the mountains beyond.
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