[html]  Here's ya are.
Oh, why'd you have to be so cute?
It was bright and sunny today, a real contrast from the weather that they had been getting lately. The large white female stretched out, putting her paws wayyy out in front of her and her rear in the air. Her back had been feeling a lot better now that she was back to sleeping inside the house, on a bed. She'd been raised sleeping on the ground, in caves and dens, but the beds that they had inside the manor were so confortable that she wasn't used to the rougher conditions outside.
Naniko yawned, her tongue lolling out of her mouth for a moment before she snapped it back shut. She'd been feeling a little tired lately, but overall had been sleeping fairly well. Now that she was up for the day, (it was late morning), she was beginning to realize how hungry she was. Her stomach growled at her as she rose to a standing position, all four legs feeling properly stretched. She started out toward the woods, going in the direction of the lake. Most animals used the lake as a watering hole, so if she waited long enough around there something tasty would show up eventually.
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OOC:
Now on to the unveiling of Pilot's secrets xD
IC:
Urma had decided to lengthen her stay around Twilight Vale's borders. Although she really wanted to get back to her pack and take a good night's rest in her den instead of anywhere out in the open when the time came, somehow just for the moment she preferred the distance. It was a bit weird how she hadn't even been with Shadowed Sun for so long and she already felt like she needed to do a lot of thinking. She wasn't planning on running away, that was for sure. Last time she had run away she had ended up marred, her already troubled thoughts disturbed and eventually made a Luperci. Shifting still made her uneasy, it was still painful and truth be told, four paws seemed more like her. But she couldn't say it didn't have its advantages. She was starting to learn to write. It was something she had always envied others for being able to do, back when she was just a regular wolf. But then again back in her former pack there weren't many Luperci to begin with, and the few that were couldn't even read, let alone write.
Advancing through the forest, she spotted a lake. Shadowed Sun only had streams running through it, but she was decided that at some point she'd have to venture in the treacherous areas that led to the sea. She was adamant about that. The sea had been something she'd only seen from a ship, and then when the ship reached shore it was kind of scraps and pieces and she was already too shook by the shipwreck to be able to enjoy what it must have looked like from the shore. Not to mention she didn't want to meet anyone that had been on the ship with her, if she could help it. She hoped they were okay, but she didn't want to stick around and see for herself.
As she drew nearer and nearer to the lake, she saw another wolf. By her casual manner and the way she seemed to know exactly where she was, Urma realised she must be a pack member. She edged closer, feeling security in the similar colour of their coats, and sat down on her haunches, trying to seem friendly and unobtrusive.
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[html] Muahahahaha!
Oh, why'd you have to be so cute?
Naniko considered herself to be a skilled hunter, and today she was planning on refilling the cache in the basement. Apollo couldn't really hunt for himself, so he usually got food from there when he was hungry if there wasn't anything fresh. She would try and get a few squirrels, maybe a rabbit, too. She wasn't sure if he had a preference or not, so she'd get a variety.
The white wolf had always lived on land, had never gone over the sea on a ship. She'd moved from pack to pack, and had eventually ended up starting Twilight Vale with her mate. This seemed like the perfect life. And with any luck, there would be some little ones running around pretty soon.
She turned at the rustle in the leaves behind her, green eyes widening. She still had the fear that the coyotes might come to Twilight Vale, though she knew that her pack was now large enough to take them. So far Gabriel was keeping his word...which was strange. When she realized that it wasn't a coyote, that it was another white female like herself, though, her tail gave a light wag. "Hello there"
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OOC:
If Pilot only knew.... =p
IC:
Urma wagged her tail in response to the friendly greeting, and closed the distance between herself and the other white wolf. She tried to smile, showing she appreciated the warm nature of her new companion and sat down. "Hello. I'm sorry if I bothered you. I'm not very familiar with these parts." She let a small uncomfortable silence settle before speaking again, "I'm from another pack, less than a day from here. Shadowed Sun, if you know of it." A small voice inside Urma's head was telling her she may just have told a complete stranger too much, but somehow she didn't feel it was a bad move in any sense.
"You're from this pack, right? The scenery is really nice. It must be a good place to settle and make a life for your own," Urma went on, convinced somehow that the white female meant no harm to her, just as Urma meant no harm to anyone herself. She watched the lake for a while, wondering whether the place was always so peaceful. If the weather would have been chillier, downright colder, and the lake frozen, and the earth tucked beneath a generous layer of snow, Urma would have almost felt her homelands in her skin. Sometimes she missed that scenery. The feel of snow under her paws. If she'd ever find someone and start a new life, she'd one day want to take that someone with her there, just for a few days. Taste her former home again. Tell everyone she was happy. She had moved on.
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Oh, why'd you have to be so cute?
She'd spoken with Pilot a few weeks back, but hadn't been to Shadowed Sun for a little while. The only real reason to go over there would be to hang out with Pilot or talk to Sirius, and Sirius had been coming by Twilight Vale every couple of days to play with Noah, so she'd had that part covered. Other than that, her fight with Conri had kept her pretty occupied. She hadn't wanted to leave the territory, just in case he hadn't been kidding about leaving Twilight Vale like he'd said.
But things were good, now, and it was nice to hear news about their pack. "Yes, actually! It's led by Tayui and Pilot...if nothing's changed since the last time I went there. Pilot's a good friend of mine, though I can admit that I don't know Tayui as well as I could" She was encouraged to hear that this female was from Pilot's pack; it gave her a bit more merit. "Yeah. I'm Naniko D'angelo, the Andromeda here. It's the top female position. This is Twilight Vale--my mate and I collected a few of our friends after the fires took our packlands, and we've kept growing ever since. Why don't you come on in? I'd love to hear how everyone from Shadowed Sun is doing"
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IC:
Urma wagged her tail, glad that this female knew of her pack, happy that she was part of a place of which others spoke well. She shouldn't have been put out by that Ember*. It came to her now that not everyone that knew of Shadowed Sun had a bad impression. And that was very reassuring. "I'm sorry, I haven't exactly been a pack member for so long now... Pilot was the one who introduced me to the pack. He met me on his way to Shadowed Sun... I suspect he'd been somewhere further away than where we met, he seemed very tired. He's about one of the only ones I could say I've been properly acquainted with so far." She looked at the female, a sense of longing filling her heart. It wasn't just the fur colour. It was the position. It was the self-confidence she seemed to possess. Naniko could easily have been the daughter Urma had never been to her mother. The kind of wolf that doesn't run away from problems, and that becomes the dominant female, in her turn.
"I'm happy to meet you, Mrs. D'Angelo. I'm Urma." She said this almost automatically, before following Naniko obediently, a smile on her lips. Her thoughts however wandered to what the female had just said. Fire? Granted she hadn't been here long, but she hadn't heard of a fire. If it had torn packs apart, it surely must have been big. She tried to take all of this information in, place it somewhere, but the questions just wouldn't keep coming. "I'm sorry... fire? I haven't been to these lands for a long time now-- I'm from Europe, actually. I shipwrecked somewhere along the coast," she said the last part as a sort of apology for her inquiry. "I understand if you don't feel comfortable talking about it, though. I don't mean to open old wounds," she completed in a small voice.
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OOC note *: The Ember Urma is thinking of isn't really Ember Phoenix. It's Firefly Sadira, who introduced herself as Ember, and obviously Urma knows her as such. =)
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[html] Haha, so when Ember comes to SS Urma will be like "that's not ember!" and Pilot will be like "ya it is" and Ember will be like "D:?"
Oh, why'd you have to be so cute?
She was probably being too talkative. It was a habit of hers that sometimes put others off, the fact that she liked to talk. Naniko didn't get to see many other wolves from Shadowed Sun, and she was interested in knowing how everyone was doing. She hoped that Shadowed Sun was always there, a friendly ally in all of the darkness that surrounded the packs. It was great to know that there was another medic there, too, someone who knew their way around an herb garden.
"That's all right. There are a few new members here who I haven't met yet...it's hard to stay connected unless there's some sort of a pack meeting or pack hunt going on. Then we all see each other again. A lot of the wolves here live in the big mansion, but some stay outside." She didn't mind thinking about the fires any more, really. It was a subject that she'd gone over so many times in her head. She could have saved Dierdre from the fire, yes...if only the female had stayed where Naniko had left her. She'd wandered away, instead. She'd accepted a while back that it wasn't her fault...at least, not completely. And she did have Apollo here, still, Dierdre's boy, which was wonderful.
"Many of us used to live across the mountain. Pilot lived in Storm, the pack to the north of my own--he was the leader there. And Tayui helped lead Jaded Shadows. All of us sort of...took up our old jobs, I guess, but with new pack names and different members. Some were lost, but overall I don't feel like it was a really horrible thing to have happened any more. It brought new beginnings. And if the lands hadn't burned, I probably wouldn't have met you, either"
They were getting up toward the house, and she pointed at it. "Ah, there it is. Haven Manor. We can get out of the sun"
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Urma listened to Naniko closely, wagging her tail every couple of sentences in an eager way. Truth be told, she was very eager, since this was knowledge she hardly had any means of getting than from Naniko herself. And she liked knowing more about how packs around here were managed, considering her pack had hardly ever had a management idea to begin with. Maybe that had been one of many problems. In any case it hardly made a difference to Urma, considering now she was here, no longer there to improve the situation or give an idea.
"That's very kind of you to say," Urma thanked Naniko, in reference to the fires making their meeting possible. "It all seems to have been different before the fire. And you seem to know Pilot so well," she continued, a hint of jealousy evident in her voice. "And I expect you know Sirius just as well." She smiled at the memory of Pilot's pup. He had been very nice to her. "I've not had the proper time to know them so well, but that's normal seeing as I haven't been on these lands for long to begin with. I would like to make more friends, of course. I'm sure you and Pilot know a lot of wolves I'd be more than glad to meet. Like your mates, for example. Common friends." She felt sure that Naniko had a mate, and as for Pilot, she recalled him having told her he had none, but surely he must have. It seemed ludicrous that he could be so nice, and yet so lonely.
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[html] xD -edits-
She couldn't help but laugh; she hadn't talked about Pilot with anyone...ever! She could tell URMA anything she wanted to know, up to a point. Naniko mostly just knew things about Pilot's leadership--it was amazing. He'd taken over the pack for Phoenix when the large male had fallen ill, and had helped administer treatment to him when he'd been too sick to do it for himself. "We didn't meet under the best circumstances, but yeah, I know him pretty well. We're good friends." They'd both started different packs in different places, but they'd somehow managed to stay connected. "You've met Sirius?" That made sense, if she knew Pilot. Naniko hadn't seen him for a while, not since the day of the miscarriage. She didn't blame him for her fall, though she'd been paying attention to him and not to the stairs she'd been going down at the time. If he hadn't been there...well. She didn't know. But it had been a while ago, and she didn't think like that. It wasn't anyone's fault that it had happened. "I talked his mother through his birth, actually. He's got a little mind of his own now, though. He used to be so tiny...I carried both him and Apollo just in my hands." Urma's next words confused the girl a little. Pilot's mate? He'd taken a new one? She had told him that he had to move on, that he had to let Dierdre go, but he'd gone ahead and gotten hitched without even telling her? "His mate, my sister Dierdre, died in the fire...I didn't know he had another. But good for him! He's a great guy. Who's the lucky lady?"
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OOC: Haha you made a typo with Umbra instead of Urma xD. Nox might think we're stealing his character =p
Urma could feel all the desire swell up in her. Naniko was all she'd never be-- friendly, more open, a leader, probably a good mate, at that. And maybe mother as well. "I don't want it to sound mean, so I apologize if it does, but I envy you for being such a nice person. You're a good friend of Pilot's, that's always something to crave for. Not to mention you lead a pack, and by the looks of it you do it so well. I wouldn't even be surprised if you'd be a good mother, that is, if you aren't already." Urma's voice was kind as she said this, because she didn't mean to make Naniko feel bad. She really felt that way, the female had been so welcoming to Urma, who was, afterall, a stranger to the pack. "I have met Sirius." She didn't think it would make much of an impression if she told her she'd first seen him asleep in Pilot's den her first night in Shadowed Sun, so she pushed that detail aside. "One day it was cold and raining, and I was thinking maybe I could keep Pilot some company if he wanted me to, but he wasn't home, and instead I found Sirius." She smiled a bit at the recollection. Sirius had seemed very outgoing, if a bit shy and scared of the weather.
"Apollo?" She tried to remember if Pilot had mentioned anything about another pup. If he had, she had a bit of trouble remembering. "I'm not sure if Pilot mentioned him, but I'm sure he must have. Apollo is Sirius's brother, I take it? I've never met him," she said, wondering whether the pup was also with Shadowed Sun, and if yes, why he wasn't spending his time with his father and brother. But then again maybe Pilot had mentioned Apollo's whereabouts, only Urma had probably been too lost by the novelty of her new home to properly remember the details. "I've never actually assisted to a birth. I don't know how well I'd do, since I'm very easily panicked and worried about everything. That would hardly help someone while they're giving birth, if all I did was fret around instead of helping," she said, a bit let down by herself.
Naniko's next words confused Urma terribly. Pilot's mate had died? Naniko's sister? How could she have been so clumsy? "I'm sorry... No, Pilot doesn't have a mate. I believe so, at least. I only assumed he had since well... Sirius and Apollo are his sons... but now I suppose it was your sister who was their mother? I'm sorry Pilot told me he didn't have a mate only I assumed he must have, what with the pups... I never imagined she died.. I'm very sorry, I had no idea, otherwise I would never have brought it up. It must have a been terrible for you, and for Pilot, and for the little boys too." It hurt her to say this. It was hard talking about death, about loss, about that stubborn state of denial in which the other's disappearance could not be reality. Mörker's death would always mean those things to Urma. No matter how much time passed, she knew he'd always be there, take a different form. She had lost a mate. A lover. Her brother. Her friend. It had been complicated. Her ears flattened against her head, her tail hidden behind her legs. It had been hard, it would always be hard. But she had started putting it behind her. Or rather, further away, in her mind, so she'd hopefully, in time, think of it less and less.
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[html] I'm going to be burnt out again by the time I finally get all of Nani's threads answered xD And urma is SO invited to the birthing thread.
"Maybe with a bit of information, you'd be able to start some conversations with him. He's very easygoing, great around pups...a fantastic healer. If you're even the least bit interested in medicine, I'm sure that he would give you some tips, too" Other than medicine, she wasn't sure what Pilot was into. Her tail wagged a bit more but she looked shyly to the side when Urma mentioned her being a good mother. "I want to be a good mother. We're expecting, actually...sometime in the fall. I guess I'll get more of a date for it when it gets closer" Right now she could just barely feel the weight of the pups. "Ah, yes. Apollo Haddon. Sirius retained a part of Dierde and my adopted father's name, Physe Revlis. They look different, the two, but I know that Dierdre had some red wolf in her. And the green eyes probably came from Thanos, her real father.""With Dierdre...I don't know what I can say. She left Pilot, actually...right before she died, while she was pregnant with the boys. She moved in with her grandmother Fatin in Jaded Shadows, joining there and leaving Storm behind. I don't know why, really...she never told me, and I haven't found the gumption to ask Pilot" She didn't know a lot about Dierdre and Pilot's mateship. "You like him?" Her tail swished back and forth at the idea. "You do like him, don't you?" Maybe just as a friend...but still. Pilot needed some more lady friends, and Nani was more than willing to help.
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OOC: Birthing thread? WHERE?! xD
"I saw his patch of garden. I could recognize only so many medicine herbs he had there, but I could always ask him about the rest...I mean, it's not like the subject doesn't interest me. It's just that sometimes I feel like my presence can be suffocating to those around me, and I don't want him to feel that I'm around him too much. From what I'd gather, he'd be too polite to even tell me I'm getting on his nerves. I owe Pilot a lot... He brought me to Shadowed Sun when I needed a pack the most. He helped me with my den, with working things out, with accommodation. And the truth is I hardly know how to repay him," Urma said, almost in one breath. She knew she had to get this feeling of being completely undeserving off her chest, but something stopped her. She knew she could try to do something. If only her ideas didn't seem so crazy in her own head.
Urma's eyes glinted as she heard the news, a bit bewildered how come someone like Naniko hadn't had pups earlier. "I've been around people before or after their birth, but I've never considered myself how it must be. Some part of me is still shy of it. I would love pups of my own, but neither has the time come, nor the mate." She said the last sentence sadly, her thoughts trailing off towards Mörker, towards all those things they could have had together. She resented him a small bit for just having left her like that, even if she knew full well his departure had hardly been a consensus between himself and death. She always went back to that time, always thought she should have woken up when she had felt him stand up and leave, even if she knew he was only going out to hunt, bring her food, like an early breakfast, unexpected but highly desired. Had she known what would follow, would she have stopped him? Back then, of course. But now, as distance and her stubborn methods of driving him away from her came between her and his memory, she wondered if she would have stopped him. She would have changed the bit with him dying, if she could, but the departure in itself would have probably gone unchallenged.
And why was that? How could she have thrown him out? Well, maybe she hadn't. Naniko's words washed over her pleasantly, familiar. "You do like him, don't you?" Well, you could put it that way. Urma didn't know what it was. She was certain it resembled a feeling she had felt before, but it was not even close. Pilot and Mörker... They were different. What she felt, what she had felt for Mörker and what she had to admit she felt for Pilot, or had started feeling, were as much different as they were alike. "Yes... You could say that," she said wistfully. "You could also say... It's a bit more." She turned to look at Naniko, eagerness etched in her features. "He feels safe, for some reason. Like he'd always be there for me." Urma went quiet, sadness replacing the eagerness. "But, after his loss, I don't think he'd ever be able to feel like that again about anyone. And I, least of all, bear any resemblance to Dierdre." She wanted to keep the disappointment out of her voice, but only half-managed to.
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[html] Not any time soon XD But I'll message you when it gets closer?
She felt good to have figured something out, at least, that Urma did like Pilot a little bit. He was a really nice guy--who wouldn't want to know more about him? Naniko had heard a few things and she actually knew a couple of facts...but maybe it would be old news to Urma. Surely Pilot would have told her some of this already...or Sirius. What did the other want to know? "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. I'm actually finding our conversation to be very stimulating--it's nice to have someone to talk to every once in a while. He's wonderful, and I bet he doesn't mind talking to you one bit"Who wouldn't mind talking to Urma? She was enjoying the conversation. "Hmmm...but for repayment? I think he used to play an instrument, but I'm not sure what one it was. A stringed one. We could go to Halifax sometime and look for another one for him, perhaps? Maybe he'd like a new one" She didn't know if he'd lost the violin in the fire, or if he still had it. "I'm sure you'll find someone someday. I feel very lucky that the Gods graced me with these pups, after losing the last litter. There's always adoption, too...sometimes orphaned pups just wander into the pack on their own accord" She thought about this for a moment, then listened for Urma's next words. Naniko didn't want to talk about what had happened between Dierdre and Pilot, as that was mostly his business...but she could tell Urma a little bit about it. "She was good with him. Stubborn girl...he seemed to cool her down a bit. But she had a darker side...one that she didn't show to many people. I know that she slept with someone else while mated to Pilot. But...I don't know if he knows...that I know. Or if he'd appreciate me telling anyone else. But it was common knowledge a few months back, before the fire, that Dierdre had gone to Jaded Shadows to be away from him. She was ashamed, I suppose." She gave Urma a nudge of encouragement. "You may look a little like her...but he'd be a fool to think that you were anything alike, once he got to know you. She did have a peculiar thing about her--two different colored eyes. One blue, one gold. But...I think you'd be good for him. Even as a friend."
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OOC: Yes, please =D
Urma listened to Naniko describe the musical instrument Pilot used to play and immediately recognized it as being a violin. "I know about those!" she exclaimed, wagging her tail in delight. "There was a group of five wolves in my former pack and they'd do serenades every evening in front of a fire, to lighten the atmosphere, especially after a conflict. One of them played an instrument like the one you described. They seemed so fascinating to me, one day he offered to tell me more about instruments. If I remember it's called a violin. It seemed such an odd name, I know I thought that when he told me. I was small still, and found all new words amusing," Urma explained happily, thinking that maybe if she could find one of those she could repay Pilot at least the smallest bit.
However, as Naniko went on to explain about Dierdre and Pilot, Urma found the joy slowly leaving her. Although monogamy was something rare amongst those in her former pack, Urma had never wanted anyone else beside Mörker. That could have very possibly been because he had always been around her, had seen her grow, and had kept other male wolves at a distance from Urma, even if she hadn't noticed it until later on. She had hardly had any male friends beside Mörker, with the exception of her older brothers. It had only struck her how odd she must have appeared to the wolves of the opposite gender in her pack after Mörker's death, when she found herself alienated from everyone. Although she hadn't felt bitterness or hate towards Mörker for isolating her, somewhat, from any other potential mates, she had always remained one of the few monogamous wolves in her pack.
It was thus that Dierdre having been with another wolf struck Urma as familiar, rather than wrong. She didn't know how most wolves here reacted to having a mate, but back home committing to a relationship hardly ever had to imply just one other person. She guessed however from what Naniko was telling her about the aftermath of Dierdre's decision, that it had had repercussions. She felt sorry for the both of them, even if she didn't know Dierdre. Although Pilot had clearly suffered a great deal, was probably still suffering, who could know what had been in her mind, what loss she must have had to endure herself? Maybe motives weren't clear for why she had done that, and maybe Urma was trying to look at the matter from both sides because to her Dierdre's behaviour brought no novelty from what she was accustomed with. Whatever her thoughts existed for, she knew she could hardly change the matter, or discard it. "I'm sorry to hear that. My former pack seems less and less like the packs here everyday. My parents were Alpha male and female, and they were each involved with the Beta female and male, respectively. These liaisons of theirs were common knowledge to the pack, and obviously a consent between my mother and father. Many of my pack members were known to have more than one mate. The litters that any of my parents would produce with their Beta counterparts would be taken care of by the Betas. However, also as a mute consent, whenever food supply would be scarce the purely Alpha descendants would have priority for survival. When my sister and I were born, only one wolf had survived from the "secondary litter", as it was called. Although I myself have had only one mate, I can say it brought me slightly apart from my pack members." Urma stopped a bit, trying to concentrate on what more she had to say before thoughts of Mörker threatened to demand superiority in her mind. "I'm telling you this as a means of explaining why I'm sorry for Pilot as much as I am for Dierdre. I know it's hard to explain, and I know I'm doing a lousy job myself, so I apologize for that." She took a deep breath and dared a small smile. "I thank you, however, for encouraging me. Maybe, who knows, one day I'll help Pilot get over his troubles, even if I'll do it only as his friend."
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