Alright, here goes my 3000-words-or-more goal! This post is mostly just for me to re-evaluate my writing skills and to give me a plot break -w- Also for the monthly task :3 IS FORWARD DATED TO THE 26th-28th! (DISCLAIM: I own none of the songs--whatsoever--posted in this thread -w-)

January 26th

How exactly does one go about this...? Nearing the end of the month and all that had happened had left Ralla devoid of the desire for much more adventure. She had traversed a good deal of Nova Scotia--with still a great amount to go--and had met many types of wolves, all ranging in personalities and types. Some of the closer packs she still had yet to inspect, but they would come in time. She still had no intention of ever leaving AniWaya permanantly. Speaking of leaving her pack so often, she had found herself doing just that lately, as she first had only a few weeks into her acceptance. Was it just her wandering feet? Spending too much time with the gypsies? She didn't know. All she knew was she could definately shoot for some peace and quiet...

She had heard and studied some of the more profound traditions that permeated AniWaya's customs and dealings, one of the ones for their current month being a cleansing ritual that required she bathe seven times--she supposed once for each color of the rainbow, however unlikely that was considering the cultural beliefs--and fasting for three days after. She would have to ask Chief Dawali after the pilgramage why exactly it was seven times and then three days of fasting thereafter. She doubted that she would stop wondering even after having it explained, though. Connecting varying cultures through practices and history was a challenge and favorite past-time; each always seemed to inevtiably return to a common root of knowledge or belief. Today's the second day of Aquarius's rule, she thought with a firm sense of destiny pulling at her heartstrings. Aquarius was her birth constellation and had begun its careful watch the day before. Thus, she felt as if it were almost predetermined that she would conduct her journey through the territory during the cycle. It almost seemed appropriate that she participated in the cleansing ritual besides, considering she had been advanced to Otlvna Gata. She felt the need to purify herself for the role, as well as to affirm her spiritual connection with her pack.

She packed very little in a small satchel; a little tinder, a few blankets--for both warmth and drying, wrapped on the side of the satchel itself--some dried meat strips, and the small axe she had first used as a Gata Hineyu. The axe's handle had been worn smooth by hands before hers, so she had wrapped the base with a few strips of leather to retain its grip. It brought back memories and a flood of responsibility that she now held and had promised to do a better job on. She would continue her contemplation during her stops along the way... If she thought too much about it before she even left, she never would've made it out the door of her cozy hut. It almost seemed a waste to let the tree-hut go unused while she was away... She would offer its occupancy to someone, if they so desired, while she travelled back south in spring. Taking a last look at the hut foundation she and J'adore had completed in a day's time, remembering the straight-shooter wolf and his eagerness, she grasped her tooth and claw necklaces for luck and jumped down the dormant red oak tree, heading southeast through the village. She passed by many huts--some occupied, most empty--and decided that she had better start to run lest she become too easily distracted with memories again and not leave until it was too dark to travel near the river safely.

Ralla had already planned her journey thoroughly. She had never been farther than Adagio Creek in AniWaya, although she had heard of a collection of lakes called Grandfather's Tears just a little ways away from them. She had been warned to stay away--far away--from those accursed waters, though that only made her wonder about their curse all the more. She wondered if the moon would offer any connection to the supposedly-cursed place? Nonetheless, the journey started with the first step. Her first spot for cleansing would be the calm part of the river that fed into the village. It was a small stream, but it would at the very least prepare her against the harshness of her second and last places of cleansing. She placed her pack on the snow and began to walk hesitantly toward's the water's edge. From birth, since she had grown up in a snowy region to begin with, she had been taught that if you got your undercoat soaked, you would freeze. But she supposed that that was part of the challenge in the ritual; perserverence. Sucking in a breath and shutting her eyes, she boldly walked into the water. At first it was so cold that she had to let her breath out in a loud huff and chatter for a few minutes as the cold shivers set in, still walking further and further into the water. She would not be satisfied until she had at least dunked her head underneath; this, to her, would symbolize the waters of the river that slaked the thirst of her tribe washing away the impurities that plagued her, if she was so favored by the Great Spirits. With a few more shaking breaths, Ralla dove her head under the water and came back up sputtering, hastily moving her legs through the shallow end to retrieve the blankets from her satchel. She wrapped them around herself and rubbed the woven cloth up and down what seemed like hundreds of times to absorb the cold water, and as she dried she felt slightly better. The chill had been enough to get to her bones already, though, but she was only on the first stage and could not give up. Keeping one of the warmer blankets draped over her shoulders, she continued her journey south, the snow chilling her feet, but the day being a blessedly windless one, so the biting cold came no further than what her coat allowed.

As she made her way to Adella's Rage, Ralla had to question her sanity in the process of the ritual. Normally, such behaviors that she was exhibitting would be a death sentence ticket. But if others before her could do, by the moon's grace and the Great Spirit's blessings, so could she! Three days was all she needed... Three days to go to and from Grandfather's Tears. The first would be the hardest... Firsts always were. And then sometimes that firsts turned into seconds and thirds, where wounds festered into blisters and eventually became callouses. Ralla would have to do the same to her resolve, and so she kept moving. The movement kept her muscles warm, at least. The roar of the rapids became painfully clear the closer Ralla neared, and when she crested the precarious ledge that dropped off to the dangerous river, she was thankful that she had only vowed to cleanse herself with the waters of the locations... Doesn't mean I have to physically enter them... Setting her pack and blanket down again, Ralla carefully made her way down the slope. A few times she slipped on an icy patch of snow--drawing a yelp from her jaws as she suddenly got closer to what could sweep her off her feet to an icy death--but her experience with the snow helped her keep steady enough. Now at the bottom of the ridge, the spray from the never-freezing river shooting up from their slopes of smoothly eroded rocks, Ralla knelt and plunged her hands into the river's depths. It was so cold that the shivering immediatly started again, but even as she dumped handfulls of water over her head until she felt the droplets reach near her undercoat again, it was at least a blessing that her hands went numb.

Repeating the process of quick drying and warming, she once more continued on. The sun had already left its apex long after her bath in Adella's waters, and soon it would really be suicide to cleanse herself in the rivers where the snow had melted some to add to its decreasing temperature. She was grateful that her last stop for the day happened to be a place she particularily liked. The caves would be difficult to find again, and so they were; the search took Ralla another precious hour closer to sundown until she found the partially-hidden entrance, snow having fallen from the ledge above to hide it from plain view. Pushing past the barrier, she was not surprised to find the cave a little on the cold side as well. With a second thought, she returned outside and broke off some twigs and hacked away a few dead branches for firewood, bringing them with her into the cave. With closer thought, the cave would be an ideal place to weather the winter if not for its tendancy to have twisting and misleading tunnels in the dark. The further she got in the darker it became, so she ripped a small portion of one of her blankets to wrap around one of the twigs. It was dry enough--it being one of the unused ones as of yet--and even though it left the blanket as a whole somewhat frayed at the ends, the makeshift torch served its purpose well.

Ralla travelled the same path as she had the first time--careful of any ice patches or hidden pitfalls that plagued the area, more so now that snow could be covering a sneaky hole--and arrived back in the mystical cave where she had first met Moonfyre. Smiling, she placed the torched on the ground and cleared a space to set up a fire. The branches took longer to catch than the twigs and broken tinder, but it took regardless. The caves were just as she had remembered; spacious, echoing every sound like a reprise of a symphony, and lit just as beautifully by even the slight light from her modest fire. She had no doubt that the water in the cave would be deathly cold, but it was perhaps the most important to her. It symbolized peace and song and the conglomeration of heart, because its waters reflected whoever looked into them as if the looker had been duplicated to the tiniest detail. She shed her blanket covering again and made her way to the water again, as she had the first time, and immersed her feet into the water first. The initial reaction was the same, as was the process. But instead of just cleansing to get used to it or for the sake of completing the journey, she sang--albeit with a quavering voice, due to the cold--to appease the spirits and cleanse her voice of whatever harmful or detrimental things it had said in the past. It was a song not of AniWayan origin, but one of her own personal like and interest. She had learned it from the gypsies as well, and thought it a sad but fitting tune for her purposes.

With a final breath she dunked her head and hurried out of the water, hastily drying and letting herself warm by the humble fire. If she didn't have a bad case of hypothermia by morning's dawn, she would thank the moon and Great Spirits a thousand times over. The rivults of water coursing down her cheeks she didn't know whether to contribute to the cave spring or her tears, though. The song was so sad and mournful, but it was the truth of life. Everything...fades away... Like the sands of time, everything good in the world always ebbed away to become immersed into the great space of forgotten memories. But that also means all the bad things... Every bad omen, thought, word, and action returns to that sea of nothingness... The best we can do is enjoy and better what we leave behind, and maybe our lives will stay behind with those actions... Maybe... It was such wishful thinking that, in the grand scheme of things, might or might not ever be realized. As the fire began to warm her--both inside and out--Ralla was comforted by the tentative memories that tiptoed to her consciousness. She would think on her relationships and journeys in the days to come, starting from when she had first arrived. Her leaving the Moon Tribe...would wait until her journey's end. Drying her unbidden tears, Ralla turned her attentions to her memories, sifting through them and picking out the faces and places and names.

Chief Dawali... He was kind to allow me into AniWaya, and with so little for me to offer. He helped me through a time of unsure convictions and welcomed me as a part of his own... Susquehanna... Where is she? And Desiree? I miss them. She was a good friend. Aithne is gone, too... Why did they leave...? A branch in the fire cracked, sending up sparks and breaking Ralla from her sorrowful reverie, returning her to the train of thought. Liliana... I could tell she wasn't pleased with me the first night, she thought with a small chuckle, teeth still clattering a little. But she helped me anyway. I'm glad that she and Nayati are together and that I could help her with the Dream-Catcher. She deserves all the happiness she is given. Nayati's a kind hunter, too. I don't know him as well as Liliana, but... I can only pray he watches out for her. Ember was a quiet one, but equally kind... Even in the Crescent Moon Pack, there was a lot of anymosity between some of the wolves. Here...it's like that anger doesn't exist. Ember was strong and brave...I wish I could be more like her... And again her thinking diverged into 'what if's' and 'could be's'. What if she were like Ember? What if Ralla was as sure of herself or braver or stronger or anything that makes one fit for this world? Would everything had happened as it already had? Maybe, maybe not. But she couldn't change it; she could only keep walking forward. Moonfyre was quiet, too, but he's gone now as well. Everyone who left I'm sure had a good reason, but... I wish I knew why... Ralla just couldn't see the appeal of leaving AniWaya for good; either out of blissful happiness or innocent ignorance, no one could say what rooted that belief in her mind. Kemo was certainly a surprise to the very end; especially what happened earlier this month. The memory returned a blush to her cheeks, but she stopped her thoughts there. She would save thinking about him and the rest of her memories for the next day and night.

What would tomorrow bring? What would her mind wander off into? Every day was like wandering into a dense and dark forest; more so than even Ethereal Eclipse. No one knew what daybreak would bring, or if the sun's rays would even reach them. Would they get lost in the brambles and thorns? Attacked by hunters more vicious than they? Struck down by angry deities? It was all possible, and Ralla imagined worrying about every single one would drive a wolf mad. Did she worry about those things? Not really. What was the use, if one really couldn't know until it happened? On the other side of that coin, she had the power of her visions and signs. With that thought in mind, she had the unfair advantage. But did she really? The signs could include her in their meaning, but visions were soley for those who surrounded her; were soley for the good of their futures. This was the gift of the moon to assuage the fears of its chosen race. And yet the carrot was dangled in front of all past and present Shamans with no hope of ever being gifted the treat. Never would Ralla see a vision that would hint her to what would come for her. Even the red on snow vision was meant for Kemo only, in the end. She had just been there to deliver the message. Was that all she was good for? She didn't think so. No life was ever created for useless folly. Even the most minute purposes was important. And she most certainly didn't see her purpose as small or insignificant. No...despite what she had run away from, it was a gift to say the least, and she would never abandon its use. It was more for those she loved than for her; both for obvious and personal reasons. If she cold prevent every bad thing from befalling her friends, family, and tribe-members, she would in a heartbeat. More than that, she was happy. Really, truly happy. Even with Noss's arrival and the ironic dread of spring, she much preferred her current life and situation to the one that she had been set for before she took that ship with the gypsy luperci. She might've been far too innocuous of the world's ulterior workings and of how truly, ridiculously mushy she came off as, but she loved her life thus far. She had no room to complain compared to the harsh realities and hardships that her fellows had had to face... She might not have been privelaged, but she was oh-so-very lucky.

She was getting ahead of herself again...

Lulled into drowsiness from the shocks of cold wearing off and the welcome heat of the fire, Ralla wrapped the blankets tightly around herself, curled into a tight ball, and closed her eyes. She imagined that she dreamt of many things, but in reality, she might've only dreamt about darkness, so exhausted was she. And so, with breath coming gently, the dripping of water and snow from the hanging stones on the cave ceiling--each one echoing in different tones--created a lullaby of a harmonic prelude.

Moon walks. "Moon talks." Moon thinks.