Form	Info Name: Terah Age: ~ 1.7 years

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Terah hurried along, her rust-hued paws devouring the long leagues of ground she still had left to go. Where she was headed, the woman was not quite certain -- there was simply a desire to run. She had sinned, and she would have paid for it quite dearly if she had remained in her pack, in her home. She laid with the alpha and carried his sons and daughters in her belly now, committing a dire offense against her parents, her own mate, and her entire pack, really -- most of all her aunt, the alpha's mate. Terah would never see any of them again, if she could help it.

The girl was not certain where she was headed: she knew nothing of these lands; it was all metempirical and utterly new to her. She had simply headed east, leaving behind everything she knew. Now, her direction had changed -- she moved almost due south now, but Terah had no idea. She did not know directions, she did not know the lay of this land. She only knew to move, and move forward. The girl's tail lashed the air behind her in frustration, and her small ears were laid nearly flat on her head. Even her stride was low and long, the walk of one shamed by their own actions.

She did not even notice the other canine's presence until she was only thirty feet or so from the pallid gray wolf -- so caught in her own travesty, Terah was almost completely unaware of the world around her. She startled, stopping completely to stare for a moment. This was the first outsider she'd been so close to since leaving her pack -- she did not want to stay and talk. They were all sinners, anyway -- she would only dirty herself further by associating with this female, a strange shock of purple on her hair. Terah had never seen anything like it before, and this only reaffirmed for her that this stranger was, in fact, a sinner. She started walking again, intending to give the stranger a wide berth. She would not stop, if it could be helped.

She could not remember the last time she'd eaten or slept. Her fur must have been in utter disarray, and messiness was something entirely metempirical to Terah, who was accustomed to neatness and an impeccable coat. She had not shifted since leaving her pack; she probably would not ever shift again. She had shamed herself, and use of the Optime form was only for those pure in heart. The stranger, her casual use of the two-legged form -- this only affirmed to Terah that this stranger was, indeed, a sinner. The pale woman's heart was blotched with darkness, no doubt, and the faster Terah got away, the better.

It wasn't to be so, however -- the girl heart the sound of paws behind her, and slowed to a stop, turning and facing her pursuer. Bright blue eyes peered out from a ruddy-furred face, the expression on the woman's face somewhere between fear, frustration, and exhaustion. She listened to the woman's strange accent, picking out the words as best she could. Terah grew up speaking French and English both, but all the English she'd ever heard was heavily laced with an accent.

No, she answered, very simply, and continued to stare. Where I am going, what I am doing -- I do not know, she said, her voice low. There was no cryptic note to her tone; the girl spoke truthfully and simply. She would answer this stranger's questions, keep her heart away from the monochrome woman's sin, and be on her way. It was, in Terah's mind, quite the simple matter.

Terah looked at this new, unwanted companion with a look she hoped betrayed nothing -- it was meant to be a flat look, and it was not all that hard, considering how dead tired she was. In truth, she really wanted to recoil -- everything about this two-legged woman seemed wrong. Women with bodies as beautiful as this one were made to cover themselves, and this girl had only a tattered, dark rose -- it did nothing to cover the shame of her shapely body. Terah saw the stranger was not so greatly different from herself in age, and very nearly did recoil. There was nothing similar between herself, Terah, daughter of the prophet, and this sure sinner.

Who are they? Terah asked, rudely. She had no qualms about demanding anything from this woman, and -- well, before she'd gone and fucked it all up, she had been someone, after all. Terah had been very much accustomed to ordering and demanding. Daughter of the prophet's holy union, mate to the strongest hunter, favorite of the alpha pair -- Terah had been, in her own right, quite the princess. Why is the way not safe? Are there more of -- are there more sinners this way? she again demanded, very nearly hissing the word "sinners" with distaste.

The ruddy-hued wolf had no idea of the obscurantism already at play from the stranger, but she herself was nothing short of brutally honest. She did not want to encounter more sinners like this one, to be honest. What reason had she to trust the stranger, though? Terah considered this weightily, rolling the thought over in her mind. No -- this sinner would deceive her as all the rest, Terah was now certain. Still -- this was her chance to get some information about just where she was and what was ahead, even if that information dripped with vileness and had great potential to be untrue.

Terah contemplated the pale woman's words, her hardened face betraying little of her thought processes. She had been quite capable of being cryptic in her homeland, and now that seemed to come at her advantage. The other canine seemed to take offense, seemed to be aggressive, even. Terah took this into consideration, too. The ruddy woman remained silent a long moment after the pale woman with the spiked lock of purple hair was quiet, even though her threats. Terah did not return the woman's gaze, but instead looked past her, in the direction she'd been headed.

And what if she wanted to die? Surely it was better to be torn to pieces than starve as a loner, her children aborted in her belly. Surely it was several worlds better than choosing a life of sin with one of those southern packs. If this one was to kill her, perhaps it was for the best -- it might be the path of least pain, and it just might clear the path into the heavens. But if she chose her death in such a fashion, even silently, would such a choice not condemn her? She contemplated this, her travel-addled mind moving slowly around the subject.

Would you tell me anything of that group? Of those groups? Help a lost traveller, don't spit upon her, the woman pleaded. Sinner or not, perhaps this woman did have some sense of morality and Terah could appeal to it.

AND DONE. Also, lol, can't believe I actually got to use today's WoTD in a post. Was a weird one. o_o "An irresistible, typically periodic craving for alcoholic drink."

The ruddy wolf started at the woman's words. It was not so much their familial ties and her princess's status that startled Terah, but the stranger's open admission of the keeping of slaves. The book condoned such things, certainly, but the place she had come from had condoned such things as barbaric, practiced in the olden times and no longer fit for today's world. Her disgust showed on her face, and she considered this pale slattern. Certainly, such a voluptuous woman was prone to fits of uncontrollable lust and dipsomania; her pack of family must be a place of incest and rape.

Terah pitied her then, remembering she should not lord her superiority over this one. After all, she'd been outcast -- she was little better than this one. The ruddy wolf took a few steps back, shaking her head. I fear your soul is tainted, stranger, and I must depart before it infects my own. You will have my prayer from afar, though -- you and all your kin there, the woman said, now retreating a bit faster. She would not speak of this place or this woman -- to do so was to place her soul in mortal danger. She would pray for their absolution, however.