A Whole New World
#1
OOC::His first task! This should be exciting!!

It had been a few days since Alonso had taken the pledge as an Ichikan, only a few days since his life as a loner, and things still felt a little strange. It was perhaps to do with the fact that his instincts had attuned themselves to living alone. He still tensed up when he heard the sound of approaching feet, and was always ashamed when he turned around to someone greeting him. Or sometimes, he hovered around the border of the land, waiting for someone to come, before remembering that he could just walk in. It was an odd feeling; being back in a pack after so long. But that didn’t mean that it was bad feeling. On the contrary, it was a slight giddying feeling; to be back among wolves and to feel the strength and comfort of a pack.

Alonso shook his head clear of his thoughts and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. X’yrin, the golden female who initiated Ichika no Ho-en, had instructed him to collect some fire wood to a bonfire and Alonso was pacing around Wentworth valley as he tried to work his way through this puzzle. He knew that she knew that he was no shape shifter. So how did she expect him to be able to collect the wood himself? The Mexican wolf had been pondering on this problem all morning and was almost ready to give up.

X’yrin had also mentioned that she would send someone that might be able to help him. She would say nothing more and had run off soon after delivering her message regarding his task. Alonso growled in annoyance and wondered if he could sniff out where the Autumn wolf was right now. The forest smelled like Kiara, a fact that was highly distracting in that moment. He was sniffing the air carefully, trying to discern X’yrin’s scent from the other overwhelming scents of the forest, when he got the scent of someone new walking his way. It was a scent that he recognized from being around Ichika but he wasn’t sure he could put a name to it. Alonso decided to sit back down on his haunches and wait for whoever it was to show up.
#2
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WC:530. Welcome to Ichika Btw!

A string of obscenities left his mouth as a great heave seemed to be the reason for the strain upon him. The massive log that was hurled up and over his shoulders was probably too much for him to handle alone but he was stubborn, the log was heaved up and on top of his shoulders and there it sat as he caught his breath. Leave it to a woman to give him a task, rather she had given him the task of helping a new member with their initiation task, when she had told him about him not being able to change forms he had groaned. What would have been rather simple was now a challenge. A few steps away his cart stood, and attached to it was the irritable horse snorting into the cold, it’s breathe visible, the steam stringing out with each snort several feet away.


A loud boom echoed through the woods as he dropped the log in the cart. Saluce didn’t really have to do this, but the log had been asking for it, the tree it had belonged too had fallen during a heavy snow and it had blocked a trail, and Saluce didn’t like trails blocked. The behemoth finally feeling his strength returning grabbed his axe and threw it in the cart before waving at Charlemagne to move his lazy ass. Saluce grabbed a hold of a smaller cart and harness, luckily he didn’t often throw away many things, and since the cart was obviously too small for his horse, it would work just fine for a non-shifting wolf.


The man continued along the path, having been told where to find the new member. Blue orbs looked upon the path as horse and master rounded a curve in it. And then there he was, his eyes looked upon the wolf, studying his build first and foremost. He could have done all of this without him but it wouldn’t have been much of a task if he didn’t involve and help him. His horse stopped a short distance away as he continued along and up to him, letting the smaller cart sit behind him as he sighed heavily.


“I guess you must be Alonso? The things woman have us men do right?” he said in jest before appraising him once again. “Alright so I’m sure my mate X’y has told you your task, well since it’s rather vague, I figured you could help me clear some of these paths, where limbs and trees have fallen onto them. Then we can take them up to be burned.” He paused for a moment straightening out his back reminding himself that he wouldn’t be lifting anything that heavy for a while.


“Since I believe in initiation tasks being hard, I have a cart for you to pull once we have it full, Charlemagne here will pull another cart so we can make one trip and get a lot done.” He smiled a bit and reminded himself he hadn’t introduced himself.

“I’m Saluce by the way, Warrior, Blacksmith, and whatever else is needed of me to be. What things do you think of yourself as good at?” he said as stood for a moment regaining his energy.


Image courtesy of Frau Böb@Flickr; table by the Mentors!

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