Words – 600+

Rain was pouring. Lighting crashes and cut the night away to reveal a circle of armored wolves. The metal figures split and a ghostly woman walked forward. She was so beautiful, even under the armor and weapons she planned to use on him. The pain she caused, the one he lost inflicted such suffering on the man’s wounded heart. The night he lost her was just as this. It was this. The pure white wolfess spoke but no words came. No sound at all filled the air. Only the black and white of night and rain came to his senses. But he didn’t have to hear her words. He knew them as if they had been branded into his body. Then she moves quickly forward, the trained killer she was and plunged her blade into his gut. With a look of pain she let him go and he fell. Down and down for an eternity. A howl of sorrow echoed through the silence before he hit the dark sea of death that wallowed bellow.

Jaden sat up suddenly only to get a mouth full of dirt. Confused and panicked, the crimson and black wolf pushed and crawled from the darkness that seemed to be pressing in on him from all sides. He fought for freedom until he finally rolled out of the darkness and flat onto his back, looking strait up at the clear night sky. The moon was large and bright in the sky as the man caught his breath.

Jaden was now lying in the middle of the woods, alone and making sense of what had just happened to him. A nightmare, he thought and slammed a fist into the soft ground beneath his body. Memories of his past didn’t often awaken him in the night like this, but when they did the Shishen always felt himself to be weak for it. The past was the past and he knew that. Having nightmares about it made him realize that he hadn’t yet let go of that life like he constantly told himself he had. He was strong enough to let go. He had promised to be. Mourning would betray her memory and her last request. This, like all the others, would be the last time he thought of it.

Pulling himself into a sitting position and holding his exhausted head in his hands, Jaden yawned and looked over at his den. He could still taste the earth as he realized that he had changed forms in his sleep. His den was only big enough for a lupus. That is why he had eaten part of the ceiling upon awakening from his slumber. Half asleep and annoyed with himself, Jaden cursed and pulled himself onto all fours and before shifting back into his lupus form. He then proceeded to lay back down in his den and sleep.

But not tonight. A sound on the wind caught the attention of sleepy Ichikan. It echoed through the mountains and struck an oddly familiar key. Jaden’s ear twitched back before he turned his whole body in the direction of the mountains. The call came again and again with a mournful tone so heavy, it seemed to weigh down the stars. He began to wander toward it, at first only to hear it better but continued to move through the night. The sound lured him into the mountains and he wandered for miles, following the sound with perked ears. Logic told him to just go home and sleep, but his heart wanted to know. Could it be her, his lost love here to reclaim him as her own? He had seen her pure white coat spattered in crimson and watched the life bleed from her, but he ignored that now. His heart wouldn’t let go and easily over powered his better judgment as the man followed the call in an almost trance like state through the dark woodland.

Jaden does. "Jaden speaks." Jaden thinks.

Words – 500+

The icy wind brushed across Jaden’s body as he moved on all four paws toward the source of the mournful howl but had it no effect on his thick Alaskan fir. He didn’t even feel it. He couldn’t feel. He was just walking, almost zombie like toward the only thing that could possibly destroy what sanity the man had. To see her. It would change him, but he had no idea how. Maybe he would revert back to the more evil past he had led in fear she wouldn’t recognize him otherwise. Maybe he would lose all will to ever fight in an attempt to never have to loss her to anyone but time ever again. Maybe he would just die and go to the afterlife with some eternal happiness in knowing that she had never died for him. So much unknown and yet he didn’t ponder. He just followed the voice on the wind.

Jaden’s absence of thought ensured that when his mind finally did return, he wasn’t sure where he was or how long he had been wandering. He only knew she was close. Shifting to his Optime form, the Shishen glided forward on two paws and searched the landscape. He could smell blood as he got closer yet. It scared him. What ifs began to well inside his mind. What if she was injured? What if she were dieing again? He didn’t stop to think that the amount of blood he smelled wasn’t nearly enough lost to cause death. He was vulnerable and subjective to his own cruel imagination. So, he sped up his pace. Not by much at first, but more and more as he got even closer. Now he was running, pushing through the woodland in a panicked and silent dash.

The wolfess appeared suddenly. Jaden came around a tree and there she was, singing to the heavens. He stopped dead and just stared. At first glance he couldn’t believe his eyes. Dark blue scanned the ghostly body as she continued to sing. She was aglow with an awe inspiring beauty under the soft light of the moon. Crimson smeared her fir and she looked almost to be wounded. Almost as he remembered her, but not quite.

She was beautiful, but she wasn’t his love. The realization was heart wrenching and left Jaden with a longing he had never felt before. No, as he scanned her again with his sad, deep blue eyes, he was sure she wasn’t his. She was coyote and his was a pure blooded tundra wolf, just as he was. But as he looked onto her, he felt no ill feelings for the mixed blood. For the first time in his life he didn’t feel any amount of hate for her because she was a coyote. He only felt pain, pain for her sadness and pain for his own.

So he stayed. Instead of turning and taking leave for the safety of his den, he stayed. The pain he felt for his loss right then was unbearable. If this wolfess was in any kind of similar pain, he wanted to help. If he could say just one thing to make her feel better, he might too feel some small amount of comfort. He told himself this as he stepped into the moonlight and avoided the truth. He just didn’t want to be alone.

The brute waited until she stopped her mournful song before speaking. His voice came soft and kind, “Why do you cry and sing such a sad song?

Jaden does. "Jaden speaks." Jaden thinks.

No problem. Sorry for my lateness ;__; Words – 300+

The other’s heart broken blue eyes were cruel. More of a resemblance to the one he had been searching for, but he had given up trying not to feel that pain. It was unavoidable. The female spoke of her love like she didn’t care Jaden had intruded on her and her follow up question seemed to trample the man’s need to not think of his loss. But she didn’t know what pain she caused and might not care either. She was a stranger and he was a stranger to her. Nothing needed to be shared but she had told him of her sadness. It was only fare that he do the same.

For a few moments, the thick furred male held her gaze hollowly and thought of how to answer. To be truthful couldn’t hurt any more, could it? Nothing would change either way. “My story…” The words were brittle, “I don’t really have a story for my sadness. My love was killed. She died for me, because of me. My life and my unborn pups died with her.”

The brute ran out of breath then. His throat knotted and wouldn’t let slip a single word more. Tears welled in his dark blue eyes and he looked away from her, his body slumping down a bit. He didn’t want to look so weak. The Alaskan clenched his teeth and told himself he was strong. He had to walk the walk and blubbering like a pup wouldn’t do.

One tear fell to the rocks at Jaden’s paws before he composted himself once more. He took a deep breath and brought his head back up. “Are you alright?” He asked noticing the blood on her again. “It looks like the rocks cut you up pretty bad.” Jaden took a step or two forward and waited to see if she would let him nearer.

Jaden does. "Jaden speaks." Jaden thinks.

PM me if you don’t like this and I will change it... Words-300+

Jaden watched Gemma answer his question with in a hollow state. It was as if the cuts on her hadn’t even registered until the man had pointed them out. The smell of her blood from those wounds was overpowering to a point that Jaden had missed the tell tail sent of pregnancy on her completely. He took another step toward the fae after she seemed to accept his approach by telling him her name. “Jaden Ohanzee,” he answered quietly with a slight nod. The man was bigger than Gemma by a noticeable amount but he meant no harm in getting closer. His movements were slow and as non-threatening as they could possibly have been.

Before he made his next move though, Jaden wondered why. Why was he going to touch her? Why did he suddenly need to so dreadfully? Because she was injured and he wanted to know how badly, that was the simplest answer even if it was a lie. With those slow and steady motions, the Shishen reached out palm up and gingerly took one of the other’s claws.

But their touch didn’t cure any of the loneliness he had felt for what seemed to be an eternity, like he had hoped. Turning the dainty claw over in his he lightly traced scratches with a finger pad and took in the incredible contrast between his black and her soft, bloodied white fur. It felt wrong. They shouldn’t have been so close and Jaden realized that suddenly, but before he could become embarrassed and release her the tinge on her fur struck him.

Gemma was a mother. Dark blue eyes suddenly darted from the bloodied palm to her slightly bulged belly and he paused. The women’s story of loss suddenly took on a whole new key and Jaden felt a flicker of anger at what ever spineless male would have left his pregnant mate. But he couldn’t change anything himself and that was obvious. So after glancing at her belly the man looked up at Gemma’s coyote features. “I’m sorry,” was all he said in the quiet night. Whether it was for her situation or for what he felt to have been an inappropriate move in touching the vulnerable fae, Jaden wasn’t all to sure himself but he felt it might be a good idea to release her.

Jaden does. "Jaden speaks." Jaden thinks.

Words-300+

Before Jaden could release Gemma, he felt the gentle pressure of her grip on his own. His eyes found her’s as the blue glistened and tears fell. He felt a pang of guilt for that pain until she began to speak. Her words were surprisingly joyous like life had suddenly filled them from some unknown place. It made Jaden smile but it was a heavy smile, one of a wounded heart and exhaustion.

The weary expression was genuine nevertheless and a calm light, warm breeze of pride pushed against Jaden as he watched her with his dark blue eyes. He had helped and when Gemma acknowledged his grip it seemed to help him ever so slightly in some way. Their aid was mutual, but he couldn’t explain how. In some way, with what very little he’d said Gemma had found comfort. Her touch did little for him but it was something and the realization that he had helped another tortured soul was something too. Jaden would be better off with himself so long as his mind didn’t stray into the past. And yet they barely knew each others name. It was hard to comprehend and even harder to explain.

He released her then. Having helped her there was nothing more he expected to gain and nothing more she could truly gain from him either as her wounds were superficial. The movement wasn’t difficult, but it was slow and deliberate. Slowly black and white parted, wolf and coyote, and the brute stepped back. Then he did something he hadn’t done before tonight. Jaden honestly admired the beautiful features of the pure white coyote without a single negative thought. “Your pups will do well with such a compassionate mother. Good luck, Gemma Rhiannon.” And he watched again perhaps for the last time. He would wait for her to leave, just incase… just incase Jaden’s trained eyes were wrong and Gemma’s injuries were worse than they appeared.

Jaden does. "Jaden speaks." Jaden thinks.