Canines came in and out of her life. Naniko had learned long ago that there was no use in trying to hold someone tight; as soon as she began to fully trust someone they would choose a different path than the one that she was on and the two would part ways. This happened under varying circumstances; her first experience of it had been when her parents had abandoned her as a whelp, leaving for a faraway land with her more favored sister. Then it had been Iskata, the canine who had adopted her. Things had gone well for a few months...but that relationship had ended worse than the first with the Sadira female attacking her and trying to kill her in a crazed bloodlust. The female's romantic relationships had ended in ruin as well, and she had given up on that front as well. A murderer and back-stabber...she picked poorly, it seemed.

The Angela had learned from her mistakes and displayed some of her beliefs in the rules that she used to govern her pack; in Anathema, once a canine joined the family they were welcomed to come and go as they needed to. Anathema would always be there, and if they came back they would be welcomed home with open arms so long as they had not betrayed her trust and were willing to devote themselves to helping the pack once more. She did this in the belief that others might bring their families there to live, as family members of present pack members were welcomed in without question. Anathema was the one place where just about anyone would be welcomed, no matter how bad a past they had. If they harmed her pack members, she would take care of them then...but otherwise, she trusted that the family would keep everyone in line.

The large female made her way across the terrain surrounding her pack with ease, used to the ups and downs of Halcyon. She had lived here with the pack for just over a year, and had explored all of these areas in depth. Naniko wasn't an isolationist, exactly, but she did have trouble getting out of the packlands sometimes. In the past year she'd gone through two different disloyal sub-leaders before choosing to promote Alaki; so far he hadn't disappointed her. Having a sub-leader allowed her to leave the territory for short amounts of time if she wished. It also helped that her litter of pups had grown a bit; they no longer needed her quite as much as before.

She glanced down at the snow beneath her feet as she padded along, then back up at the dismal sky. She wore nothing on this day despite the chill, only a simple weapons-belt around her waist. Winter was her favorite time of the year. She really couldn't stand the heat of the summer and kept to the caves during that season...she seemed more suited for the ice and snow. A sudden flurry of movement a few yards to her left caught her attention, and the Angela took a few paces back to observe the situation. Had he not tripped she felt certain she would have simply overlooked him, lost in thought. It looked like there was something wrong with his foot. Naniko took a few steps back toward the figure, trying to peer around a tree that barely concealed her alabaster form. She put one hand to her belt, upon which two daggers and a long axe were strapped. Was he injured? She hesitated for only a moment before choosing to step out into the open, clearing her throat. "Nice choice of words there. You stuck?"

She found it a bit difficult to focus on the situation at hand, a slight yawn escaping her muzzle. She'd tried to detain it and keep her composure, but lack of sleep meant that she would likely yawn in any situation regardless of its seriousness. The female was an insomniac, a wolf struck with an illness that offered her only a few, scattered hours of sleep per night. It had begun after she had stopped using the powdered drug that she'd found in the city, perhaps as some sort of side effect from her withdrawal. Quitting it had certainly not been easy, but it had been necessary.

Naniko covered her mouth quickly, giving a small smile of apology as he spoke. "Doesn't hurt my ears any" She said in simple reply to his first statement. Now that he had turned his muzzle to her she could see that his features were marred, long scars running across his face. Naniko wasn't much of a fighter, as shown by her own scars; she got injured more than she won any fight that involved any sort of skill. If the canine was drunk and had one arm tied behind their back...only then might she have a chance of winning. But others did not need to know this; the weapons served to scare people as useful props. One of the daggers was dull and simple, the other a ceremonial blade for accepting newcomers into the pack... And the axe was used to chop firewood.

She pulled her axe free at his next words, holding it up. "You want me to save the calf, or cut just below the knee?" She asked, her face stone serious. Then she broke, giving a loud and hearty laugh. "I kid. Let me chop you free of that root." The Angela began to hack carefully at the root, cracking the wood with a few resounding thumps. "I think I've got it..try and pull your foot out. I don't want to get much closer to your limb."

OOC: Your post made me laugh so hard XD WC:343

She'd been feeling a bit chilly earlier, but the work that she was doing helped to make her feel quite a bit warmer. That and the fact that she could poke a bit of fun at the male. Naniko would take advantage of that fact as much as she could - she rather enjoyed having a laugh at others if she could, some playful banter. "Of course I know how to use it. I wouldn't carry it if I couldn't" She scoffed. It didn't take long for him to pull his leg free; it would seem that her job here was done. The Angela took her axe and slid it back into the holder on her belt, swiping her paws together to clean them of the dirt that had accumulated on them due to the intensity of her hacking.

Naniko looked shocked when his hand extended toward her; she had been greeted this way in the past once or twice, but not very often and was a bit surprised by the gesture. At first, she had thought that he was trying to hit at her and she'd backed away instinctively and put her own hands up in defense. But it would seem that her reaction was unwarranted. "Err...Naniko" She answered, responding by tentatively putting her hand against his own and trying to grasp it. "And it's OK...you would have done the same for me. Right?" She teased.

She wasn't quite sure what to make Shandom. He seemed friendly enough, but his scars were what really caught her interest. A canine's scars told much more than their words, she often found. "You from around here?" Naniko inquired. "I lead a pack that's not too far from here." The Angela wondered about the pack that he'd come from and what he had been doing when he'd gotten his foot stuck. Had he been there long? Was he hungry? She had many things that she wanted to ask the scarred stranger, but kept a hold on her tongue. She didn't want to appear over-eager for information.

OOC: You have not -seen- "babbly" ;D WC:848

With age came wisdom, or so it would seem. Naniko felt that her years of life gave her an advantage over some younger, more foolish canines. It seemed that anyone was able to jump up and start a pack these days (there were new ones popping up every day) but there weren't many that were led by older, more experienced leaders. This she did not fully understand. If there was a canine with more fighting skills or more experience, why did they not try to best the canine leading them? It was something she had always wondered. In each pack that she had taken residence in, the leader had automatically bested her varieties of ways...in Chimera her father had ruled, a much older and wiser wolf than she...and in Clouded Tears she had grown up under the reign of a grizzled old wolf named Laruku. She'd been a leader since then, taking charge of a small group of friends and family members when there had been no one else to do the job. Her mate at the time, Conri, had led alongside her until the day that he'd gone berserk. After that he had never been allowed near the lands again and had been given the label of rapist...and later, murderer.

She supposed that the idea had something to do with how the canine held themselves. Any leader, old or young, would seem weak if they did not put on a brave front and act as if they knew what to do in every situation. Naniko often pretended that she knew exactly what she was doing and tried not to second-guess her actions and words if she could help it. Others looked to her for direction and she needed to be there for them. There wasn't much that surprised her any more about canines, she could say that. As great as some were at concealing who they really were...she had to be better at figuring them out. She had experienced many different types of psychopathic canines, twisted ones who wanted nothing more than to benefit from the pain of others. Canines who could kill another with no remorse or thought. Those were the ones that she tried to avoid, if she could. She accepted many oddballs into Anathema...as long as they did not harm those within the pack borders, they would be able to stay. Any transgressions that occurred inside Anathema would be punished harshly.

The female managed a grin back at his first comment, shaking her head. "Sorry! I guess I wasn't used to it. I try to watch for signs of aggression...should have known not to expect it from you, hmm" She said, her smile growing wider. "Anathema's the place I call home. You said that you used to call Cour des Miracles home...maybe you met my son, Haven Aatte?" She asked. She hadn't seen the boy since her exile from Crimson Dreams. The family had either been with her or against her, and Haven had been one of those who had most definitely been against her. Forget the fact that she had raised him and supported him and his decisions his entire life up to that point...when it came to Crimson Dreams, he apparently sided with the pack. She hadn't seen him since she had left...she'd just had no interest in facing his rejection of her in person. She had grandchildren now, but she only knew of them...not their names or how many of them there were.

He mentioned that he wasn't normally in his two-legged form, which answered a lot of questions about how he'd gotten stuck there in the first place. Naniko could understand how difficult it was to walk on two legs; she still tripped and fell pretty often, despite her having been on two legs for most of her life. They were opposites, she and Shandom. It had been a very long time since she had spent even a day outside of her Optime form, the form she was most comfortable in."I'm the opposite of you. I'm always in this form unless I need to get somewhere inside of the caves that I wouldn't be able to normally. I use my dagger to help my members join the pack, so I must use these fingers to manipulate it and my other weapons." She explained. "It's been a long time since I've shifted at all, to be honest. I don't mind my four-legged form...it's more natural and I can get around much easier. But some tasks require these hands to accomplish" She held up her hands to show him the many scars that criss-crossed her paw-pads from the blood-sharing ceremonies that she had been a part of in the past. "They share blood with me to join the pack and truly become kin to us. Do you have family around here?" She wondered if the male might have any kin in Cour des Miracles that he was tied to, or perhaps in other packs in the general area. Maybe she had met some of them before, if they lived in around here.

OOC: Thought this post was going to be shorter than it is XD Sorry <33 You're a great writer and give me a lot to respond to ^^

They had a few things in common, like their pelt and the fact that both of them were riddled with scars...but they also seemed very different from one another in a few key ways. He was a wanderer, she a pack wolf. She couldn't imagine not being settled down in one area or another - the protection that a pack could give was great. Naniko actually enjoyed interacting with the members and finding out more about them and their stories...what had brought them to Anathema and what they were currently trying to do with their lives. She felt more at one with the pack when she spoke to members on a regular basis. She wanted to give them what they wanted and needed, and talking to them was the only way to figure those things out. She had not been without a pack for a year or so, and never for more than a month or so at a time. Naniko didn't often think about what life had been like as a wanderer, how difficult it'd been or how unsafe she had felt during that time.

There was something about Shandom that she liked, despite their differences. He seemed friendly, but not overly so. She found those types to be somewhat annoying - the kind of canines who would pretend things to become closer to a leader or who would act a certain way or agree with her just because of her status. He seemed to be able to take her jokes and respond to them in stride, something she appreciated and found rather amusing. "Hope I'm not hurting your pride too much - I've gotten into similar places before." She commented after his laugh, hoping to show that her jests came with no ill intent.

He spoke next of her son. She looked at him sharply until he mentioned that he had not seen the male around. At that comment her ears drooped slightly - she'd been hoping to hear some news of him. Perhaps she would have to swallow her pride and go down to the pack eventually to find out what was going on with him. Or she could ask Soran the next time that she saw her mother-figure. His words about trying out pack life made her wonder, and she looked back at him, thinking. "Do you think you could ever settle into pack life? I can't imagine myself without my pack...they're great. I think that everyone has a niche somewhere, they just need to discover it. Many packs are too controlling of their members. I take a more hands-off approach." She said. "But I understand that pack life isn't for everyone. It's just hard to wrap my head around."

She listened as he continued to speak, noting that he knew somebody from her pack. Unless Alaki had been the one to accept them it was likely that she knew the canine as well, and she took care to listen closely for the name of said canine. Caprica. Naniko grinned at that. She was glad that her girl was taking the time to go out into the world and meet others. She'd come back to the pack and Nani was glad to have her back...but she was proud that her daughter was branching out from the pack, as well. "I know her pretty well. She is my daughter, after all, so I ought to." She realized then that she hadn't given her last name. "I'm Naniko D'Angleo. Sorry...I didn't give you my full name, before. I've had a few litters over the years..many of my children have moved on, but Caprica and her sister returned to me in Anathema."

His ideas about shifting and what form seemed more natural were correct, as far as Naniko was concerned. Shifting was quite unnatural. But at the same time, for her it was so very useful. She couldn't imagine living life on four legs and not being able to do all the things that she wanted to, any longer. Her own experience with shifting hadn't gone very well...but it hadn't tarnished her love for the form. "I was forced to shift to defend myself just before I became an adult. I used that form to climb up into a tree after crossing a river...and my scent was lost." She didn't mention that it was her own mother that had done the chasing, nor that she likely would have been killed if she hadn't been able to get into her other form. "I do enjoy shifting back to my four-legged form sometimes, though. Just for the fun of it." She understood that he didn't have any family in the area, but didn't feel this way or that about it. He didn't seem overly upset about it. "At one point in my life I was the only D'Angelo in the lands. But as you know, my family's numbers have grown since."