Oak once again stole a wary glance at the skulls lining the border of the territory, his face twisting into a grimace. He had heard rumor that Inferni was a dangerous place, but he had not expected to see such a brutal barrier indicating their claimed land. The fleshless skulls of countless canines were a harsh sight to his innocent eyes, awakening a mortal fear in him that matched nothing he had ever felt. The sun glinted off the bleached white bone with ghostly beauty, and he shivered despite the spring sun that was beaming golden from above, looking away.

He had tried to remain content with the answers his mother gave him about his father. Gabriel was a leader, busy with responsibilities and a life of his own. Oak assumed his mother meant that he should leave his father alone, never to distract the mysterious man with his presence. But the strong-willed boy was no longer satisfied to leave his identity unsolved. He did not think he could move forward in his life without meeting the one who had fathered him.

Had it not been for this pressing desire, Oak would have fled at first sight of the sickening display. His black-tipped tail twitched involuntarily as he arched his neck and emitted a low howl, announcing his presence. He sat in the grass of soft jade, well away from the morbid spectacle, his ears pressed against his head, cobalt eyes flitting nervously beyond the barrier into the land of his father.

It had been too long. Anu had warned him to stay away, but he could not heed her desire any longer. He did not think it fair of her to expect him to live without knowing where he had truly come from. Perhaps if he had told her he was leaving for Inferni, his mother would have understood, but still he resented her, and still he felt the itch to rebel against what he believed were her wishes. Cypress had encountered Gabriel months ago, and there was no doubt the lost youth's mind that Alder had crossed paths with their estranged father by now as well. It was his turn.

The footsteps he heard were not the unmistakable, heavy thuds expected of a leader, but the light dance of a woman's feet against the earth. Oak lifted his head from where it had wilted, muzzle to chest, eyes searching for the source of the sound and finding lithe shape of the hybrid woman as she added something to the gruesome Inferni border. Only when he focused his attention on the vibrant object whose colors matched the stains on the woman's hands did he understand what she was doing. Not just the act itself nauseated the boy — her scent was familiar to him in manner that chilled his blood, for he did could not identify the commonality between them.

Oak straightened his back and lifted his ears slightly as she approached, feigning strength to prove to her up front that he was not here to be toyed with, although his mood was soured with anxiety. In his state of mind, her crossed arms and her direct question seemed reproachful. His crimson brow furrowed and the cobalt eyes beneath darted stubbornly from the woman's face to the addition she had just made to the boundary, the colors painted on the skull blatant in the sunlight against a backdrop of bright ivory. What did you just do? he asked in a low and needling tone, steeling one last look at the skull before fixing his stare into her crimson pools.

this post is blah and all over the place. but I'd like to say that your writing is simply amazing.

Her eyes were like nothing he had seen before. The bloody hue had colored the eyes of the heartless wench who had killed his childhood friend, but blood-thirst and cruelty were not what he saw in the hybrid woman's eyes. Instead, there was something much more profound; intelligence, thoughtfulness perhaps. He was puzzled, for what he perceived in her vermilion pools did not coincide with his fear of her handling of the painted cranium, with the brutal setting in which she lived. He was skeptical, but at the same time intensely curious.

He could see that she was already displeased with him, and he was ashamed for allowing his fear to leak into his poisonous question. Yet she did nothing more than fix him with a narrowed stare and explain, quite calmly, the purpose of her actions. Oak could do nothing but watch and listen closely, his emotions a strange blend of wonder and disgust. His eyes followed the gesture of her hand, unwillingly absorbing the sight of so many mounted skulls. He did not understand why one would take up such a strange art, but he had come from an entirely different place, where Dreaming wolves pursued crafts of music and painting pictures on paper, of healing and growing gardens.

He felt a strange tinge of respect for the calm manner in which she explained, without an apparent reaction to his judgmental tone. Still, she had given him a taste of the pack's customs, so violent, so much different from what he was used to. He realized suddenly that this seeming nastiness was a part of him, too, practiced in the lands of his father. Oak let his gaze fall, overwhelmed, finding no response to her words. He could say nothing that would prove wrong the customs she practiced, no snide remark hid beneath his tongue. In that moment, he was ready to disregard the skulls, leave alone what would always be beyond his capability of understanding. Finally, he looked up, though his cobalt eyes wavered. It bothers me, he admitted softly, his tone slightly defeated. And you're right. I did not know what to expect, but I was afraid to come here. This is not a place for me.

Oak's voice seemed to briefly choke and die in his throat. She had sought and found exactly the right words to resurrect his true purpose for coming into her home. But I can't leave yet. I did come for a reason, he finally spoke what the nameless female already knew. What he said next, however, might be a surprise to her. My father lives here. Gabriel. I've come to meet him.

Thank you. I'll be quicker from here on out.

The world before him so perplexed him in its lack of the warmth of the only world he had known. In Crimson Dreams he was surrounded by compassion, not only from his mother and brothers, but from every wolf who shared it as home with him, Savina, Kansas, Ghita, everyone. Here he felt something else entirely, so foreign to him that it chilled his blood and caused his hackles to stand perpetually on end. It was unfathomable for the sheltered, and dearly loved boy. He understood now why Anu had warned him against seeking Gabriel here, but he was stubborn, unable to leave without a reasonable fight.

A silence followed his words, and he watched with mounting fear as the woman before him grew colder, more sinister, and the respect he had begun to feel for her dissolved into dismay. He felt scorned in her delving crimson gaze, her rapidly growing distaste for him was not lost on him as she searched for something in him, he did not know what. Her words were at once chilling and confusing as her tone dropped and she advanced toward him. Initially, he took a step back, though the sting of her message had lit an angry fire inside, all but replacing his fear. She had insulted his intellect, and worse, his mother. I think you're the one who's mistaken, he spoke coldly, recklessly, to the woman who he now knew was his sister. Either she knew that her father and his was the same man, or she was ignorant, and because of her blatant intelligence he decided it was not the latter that had sparked her hostility toward him.

Something propelled him another few steps closer to her, so that they stood no more than a couple of feet away from one another. His ears stood tall and his cobalt eyes had become icy as he glared at her with frustration. We're brother and sister. You just don't want to accept it. And I don't understand why. Why could she not be thrilled to know she had other, very closely related family, illegitimate or not? That was the way it was supposed to be. But he was quickly coming to understand that here, things were very, very different. He did not expect her to relent at this point - and neither would he.

End here? I had fun with this thread, I expected Oak to get more riled up, weird it didn't turn out that way. XD

The bold, sharp words that had rolled off his tongue had come with surprise even to him, and he was becoming more conscious that they could very well set his demise in motion. He stood silently as the woman became lost in her own thoughts, though he could not deny the satisfaction he felt at the possibility that he had temporarily stumped her. But, as could be expected of a woman he had come to understand as extremely thoughtful, she spoke after the silence had lapsed for mere seconds. As he listened, he realized that she could not be shaken, regardless of his any attempt to shift her perspective on him and his kind.

Her speech revealed that his suspicions had been correct, that she knew very well of their relation, that they shared the same father. His lips became slightly crooked in a satisfied smile that he wasn't sure he wanted her to detect. Although her words were insulting, and again they stung his strong and golden heart, they brought him to an understanding that he would never forget. He understood fully his mother's warnings, and from now on, he would heed them. He would not seek Gabriel himself, and certainly never again in this place, but instead allow fate to bring them together if that was what fate desired. As much as he hated to believe it, so deep was his disappointment (if only his father had answered him personally), he knew that he had to have faith.

He was shaken by a whirlwind of confused emotion, and in his naivety he wished to retaliate once again by telling her that Gabriel had come to Crimson Dreams at least once to meet with both his mother and his brother. Yet he could almost hear his mother's voice urging him to control himself, and so the boy reluctantly bit his tongue against the hybrid woman's harsh retort. Maybe this Talitha, his sister, was right. He had done nothing to earn his father's love nor his respect, more reason that he should not have come here. Still, as she gave her final threat, he flinched, his ears lowering slowly. He did not doubt that her threat was sincere, yet he felt strangely unafraid, perhaps because he had made his decision just before she spoke it. All right, Miss. I'll leave, and never return.His voice was noticeably defeated, yet strained by the anger and sadness that this encounter had evoked. What he had said was all that he could manage, for if he had allowed himself to continue, he would have quickly slipped back into recklessness, and that obviously was not going to get him what he wanted, and definitely going to get him killed.

He faced her as he backed away and stared deep into her vermillion eyes, perhaps hoping to catch a softer glimpse of this woman to whom he was so closely related, but he saw nothing. From the depths of his wounded heart, the rust wolf's anger mounted as he retreated still further back, and finally he looked away from her and turned around. As much as he longed to look over his shoulder and scream "fuck you," he kept his eyes trained on the path that would lead him back to where he belonged.