my heart's beating; is it serious?
#1
Queen of Piety Cemetary, late afternoon, Tayui's in her lupus form.
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[/html]Since visiting AniWaya and finding Anu, she hadn’t ventured out to Halifax. When she had been a member of Jaded Shadows, her excursions to the nearby city had been a regular fact of life, but as she’d aged, these trips had become less and less frequent. Maybe it was because she didn’t want anything from the city or that the city simply had less to offer: there was less that surprised or shocked her anymore and very little that she did find was in working condition. In the years she’d been living, a lot of the human items had disintegrated to the point of being unusable. She recalled the books she’d once owned with fond memories. Most were wet, damaged, or eaten by animals and insects. They were a rare treasure these days.

Even though she’d come all this way, she had nothing to show for it except a small bite to eat. She chewed on the bone of a rabbit slowly. She had been quick to devour the small creature, but took her time sucking out the marrow in its bones and was now gnawing on what little was left. The sun was hot and the day was humid, so she had taken her meal under the shade of a tree. There were a lot of trees in the cemetery now. She didn’t remember it being this shaded the last time she’d been here, but she supposed that had been quite a long time ago and she hadn’t been paying attention to such things.[html]
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#2
[html]I am stupid.

Petra had been due for a run. The buckskin had been ever-so-patient while Ezra settled into his new home, getting only slightly offended when he chose toe explore the territory on foot. Ezra's preference for his secui form had led him to frustration when he found himself more often on two legs than four because of the move. Today was still no different. As he placed the frayed saddle on Petra's back the optime man froze momentarily, spacing out. He had no rest since arriving at Vinatta, he was constantly keeping busy, and the chores he took care of usually demanded the more cultured physical form. Ezra sighed, and hoisted himself on the horses back. Then they took off like a bullet.

***

Getting to Halifax had been easy enough. The sun was no longer at its hottest, and it looked as things were starting to wind down. Petra had taken Ezra through to a cemetery he had never visited before. His search had been fruitful thus far but he wanted to see if there were more stores he could try to find sheets in that weren't completely destroyed by rats. Petra trotted slowly through the human structure until Ezra spotted the white female in the distance. it was the first canine he had seen all day. The husky guided his mare towards the other. "Beautiful day," Ezra said pleasantly, joyed to see another creature enjoying the pleasant afternoon just like he was. She was also in the shade, which Ezra was envious of, despite the sun's lesser intensity he was still very hot in his thick double coat.

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#3
Or too smart for description!
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[/html]If the last thing Tayui had been expecting was another wolf, then she certainly hadn’t expected to see one perched atop a massive horse. From her position on the ground in her four-legged form, the beast was certainly formidable and definitely very tall. She pushed herself up off the ground and into a sitting position so that she could crane her neck to see the other wolf better. She knew that standing up would only make the awkward more uncomfortable on her neck, so she remained seated. She dropped the bone that she had been chewing on to squint at the newcomer in the setting sun.

“Yes,” she agreed. There was a distinct pause after which she sat quietly as she contemplated her next words. “A bit hot for my liking,” she added. Being a wolf of the northern lands, she found much of the summertime weather to be a bit hot. She liked the winter, when she blended in with her surroundings, when the world was blanketed in snow, and when prey was easier to come by.

“I’m still getting used to this eastern weather, I guess,” she explained with a small shrug and a wry smile. Even though she'd lived here for most of her life, she still liked to joke about it as if it were all a new adventure.[html]
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#4
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"Are you a northerner too?" the wolf asked curiously. But Ezra already knew the answer to that; she had blood that came from deep in the arctic. She was that brilliant Northern white, with a yellowish impurity down her back. She was pretty, but definitely aged. She held herself the same way people who have suffered immense loss carried themselves. That was one thing he had in common with her.

He felt awkward at this height. She was much smaller than the imposing buckskin and Ezra was huge for the average wolf. The husky-mix flung his foot around so he could dismount from the yellow horse. "Hey, do you know where I could find some sheets around here?" Why the hell not? It would save him time searching.

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#5
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[/html]Tayui nodded quickly in response. “From Quebec,” she replied.

She knew that she stuck out quite marvelously, what with her white coat and her distinct skunk stripe of tan. Her eyes didn’t help, either. She supposed she was a rather memorable creature, even if she didn’t really want to be. She strained her eyes as she waited to see if he was going to say anything else, but he was silent. Instead, he committed himself to action. She couldn’t quite tell what he was doing, but after a few seconds, she realized that he was dismounting. The sun was in her eyes and she hoped that if he did dismount that he could stand somewhere else so that the sun wasn’t directly behind him. It was terribly distracting.

“Sheets?” she repeated. She frowned and shook her head. “I’d say anything like that’s long gone. Animals have gotten to it and whatnot. Though, I’m sure a fellow like you could learn how to weave if you could find someone to teach you.” She said this last bit in an almost distracted tone as she tried to remember who she knew that could weave. She felt as though she had known someone, a male, who had done it, but she felt as though he was no longer around. It was a shame, after all, as weaving was a very useful skill now that human relics were no longer readily available.
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#6
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So he was right. Ezra knew a lot about where she came from, then, because he was from even higher up north. He came from a long line of sled dogs who, after the humans were wiped out, bred with the local wolves that were crazy and believed in insane delusions. Ezra had ventured through Quebec many times when he was younger, and he stayed there for a particularly long time once he left his family to start a new life. It was damn cold up there.

"It's only going to get hotter," he said with a grin. She must be very delicate, or heat sensitive. "I knew a weaver once," he said nostalgically, thinking of the Kingdom's second-in-command. "But I don't really wear clothes, so I never thought of learning. Good idea. I'm Ezra, by the way, Hollr of Vinatta," He said proudly. It was wonderful to think that he had a new pack to rely on. He knew this was the best choice he could have ever made. He was finally home.

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#7
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[/html]“Ugh,” she replied in a long breath. She was definitely not looking forward to the Nova Scotian summer. She had experienced plenty of them and every summer, all she could think of was how much nicer winter was. Even if the winters here were rather temperate, food was far more plentiful, which was a definitely bonus. She missed Quebec, certainly, but she had more here to miss, so she didn’t feel sad or lonely. She just wanted it to snow!

When he mentioned that he knew a weaver – once – she raised her brows in expectation. Maybe, if they were still doing well and their relationship was a positive one, he could ask for aid. It would certainly help. But then, she’d only just met this fellow and it was rather tough to offer much advice to someone like that. Of course, she was glad to have helped in some form. Maybe after this, he really would go and learn how to weave. It would certainly make her feel as though she’d done something useful: suggesting a workable idea.

“It’s nice to meet you – Ezra,” she replied after a pause before his name. “I’m Tayui Aston. You’re… from a new pack, I’m guessing?” The name he gave her was unfamiliar and she wasn’t sure if his title was Hollr or if he was Ezra Hollr of Vinatta. She’d heard some use the old forms of nomenclature around here, especially the French, whose names were often reminiscent of an older day. Although Tayui wasn’t really from an ash tree settlement like her name implied, she liked to think that along the way, one of the Quebec natives had been, which was how she’d gotten her name.[html]
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#8
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The pale woman's response made him chuckle. He, too, understood how uncomfortable the heat got, when the only ways to stay sane were to go swimming every day. But Ezra didn't really want to talk about such a horrid subject when it was such a lovely day to savor. "Nice to meet you, Tayui," he said genuinely. She seemed perfectly rational and wise, which was coincidently his favorite kind of character.


"I am," the hybrid responded to her question. "A days ride west of here. We formed about a month ago, it's a pack full of Stormbringers.. and my family," He said with a grin. Oh... the shenanigans his leaders were getting into. "What about you? Do you live here in the city?"

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#9
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[/html]She smiled in response to his polite greeting. She perked up her ears when he explained that he was indeed from a new pack: one to the west, likely north of Inferni. Coincidentally, this was in an area she wasn't too likely to wander. Given her history with the scum Salsola, she didn't plan on venturing too close lest one of their spies notice that she wasn't as dead as they thought she should be. She still wasn't sure how she survived that attack, especially given the size of the tides in the Bay of Fundy. But somehow, she pulled through and she didn't ever plan on getting too close to the pack again.

When Ezra mentioned that it was a pack of Stormbringers, she frowned in concentration. She had known a few that had gone by that name. Rain, of course, was the first that came to mind, but she was years dead. Her daughter, Ember, was also dead and her son -- well, she suspected the worst. Aidan would either be old and have forgotten his time in 'Souls by now. If he was lucky, he would have gotten as far away as possible.

"Me? Oh no, I live up where Dahlia used to be with some friends. I haven't visited Halifax in a while, so I thought it was about time to venture down." She accompanied this with a small shrug. She didn't want to go out and say that she was a loner -- since, after all, as a loner she didn't really trust pack wolves -- so she hoped that he wouldn't do anything nefarious with this information. She didn't like revealing too much about herself to strangers, so this was a very big step for her. [html]
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#10
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"I see," the hybrid said, nodding. "I knew a few from Dahlia, back in its day," Ezra said happily, musing about Alae and Bris. He hadn't thought of those wonderful women in quite some time. They were both friends of his from his single days, before things got complicated and tense with Eli. Those were simpler, happier days, when he went fishing with Bris and got some medicinal advice from the cream healer.


Ezra had almost forgotten that the pack disbanded. It disappeared while he was still a ranked member off the Kingdom. It had been very alarming that their neighbors to the north had fallen apart, Ezra could remember. He wondered if this Tayui before him had been a member of that pack, and couldn't find herself leaving the territory.. but he doubted it. "Where in Quebec did you say you were from? I'm from Newfoundland, originally, so I've passed through there quite a few times," Small talk was not his best ability, but he certainly was trying.

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#11
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[/html]Tayui nodded in reply as Ezra mused over the once-pack, Dahlia. She too had known a few, though, the ones that stood out to her the most were Addison and Conor Soul. She wondered what had happened to them. She hoped they were all right and doing well.

There was a lull in the conversation and Tayui wondered if the other man was struggling to find things to discuss. Chance encounters, she found, always tended toward being a bit uncomfortable since neither party knew one another and was just hoping that the other was friendly. Tayui didn’t like to automatically assume the worst of others, but the years had tempered her good will into something that reeked of suspicion and distrust. Still, he did her best to keep an open mind; he had not thus far displayed any odd behaviour, so that either meant he was friendly or completely insane. She was hoping for the former.

“From the north--near the Baie James region, east of the broken dam, if you’ve ever ventured there. It was a lake region and my pack spanned across the Native Eeyou Istchee,” she replied, parroting the things she had learned when she was young. She frowned slightly, but tried not to show her anxiety. Even though she knew this to be true, how much of what she remembered was false and distorted by her panic and horrible assumptions? Éloise had revealed the half-truths Aurèle had hinted at and what Honoré had likely been too cowardly to reveal. She wanted to claim pride, but her homeland was still mired in mystery. She just wished Éloise had not left. Maybe she was a ghost after all.

“We lived along the Grand River, which cut east and west across the lands. I left when I was only a year old, so things are--foggy--at best.” [html]
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#12
[html]Sorry for the delay.

So the loner before him had come from an area he knew and had traveled through. She seemed to be telling the truth, despite her confession. “I see,” the hybrid said pleasantly. “I took a luperci ferry across from the island to the tip of Quebec years ago. I haven’t been back, but I remember that area was certainly beautiful. If you’ve ever been on the island, I’m from outside Daniel’s Harbor, to the west,” He knew he was rambling and blabbering, but he couldn’t help himself. The Hollr patted his flighty horse to calm any potential freak outs she could have by being so close to Tayui. The horse stomped her powerful hooves to the ground, almost in warning.

“Don’t be alarmed by Petra, she is insane,” he said to his companion with a grin. The flighty horse looked nervous, as if she wanted to get the hell out of here. “She still has quite a large wild streak in her,” His taming was going well, hell Petra was a completely different horse than she was a year ago. It pleased the husky male that he had come so far with his beloved hoofed companion.

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#13
No worries! Also, Tayui is kind of making a joke but she is being very dry about it. Her sense of humour is horrible hahaha.
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[/html]Tayui frowned when the wolf mentioned a ‘ferry.’ She wasn’t sure what that was, but she assumed that it was some sort of boat that would bring him across the water—if he was going from the island to the tip of Quebec. She wasn’t too sure which tip he was thinking of, since the maps she’d found made Quebec look rather pointy. But she just nodded good-naturedly, plotting out ways to extract more information. As always, she hungered for more knowledge and she wanted him to tell her more. She also wished her maps were still useable. Unfortunately, many of her books had been lost along the way and her paper had crumbled into dust. Humans didn’t tend to make things that lasted very well. Their world hadn’t lasted too long, either, now had it?

She slotted the name, ‘Daniel’s Harbour,’ into the back of her mind in case she ever came across it again.

Tayui frowned when the horse stomped. She immediately felt her lips pull back and bare her teeth at the horse. That horse was food and even though her instincts told her that she should just eat it and be done with it, apparently it was this wolf’s companion. She’d never stop finding it funny that wolves would ride around on their food. It’d be like riding a sheep—or maybe a caribou.

“I’m sure she does,” she replied, watching the horse carefully. “You should behave, Petra, because many of us might want to eat you,” she informed it. She glanced at Ezra. “Do horses speak our language? Or do we have to speak theirs?” She wasn’t sure if her bird pidgin would suffice with a horse. "You should behave," she informed the horse in her squawking bird low-speech. [html]
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#14
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XD sorry for the delay, muse death + no time to post + spotty internet = slow shae.

Tayui seemed less than thrilled at the horse, but Ezra took her predator joke kindly enough. After all, he too thought it was a bizarre habit to keep a food source as a pet but had forgotten that once he took Petra from the wild. Ezra considered her question carefully. ”I don’t know,” he said truthfully. “There were some wolves in the Kingdom that could speak to horses but I never bothered to learn or ask them about it,” He said as she spoke to Petra in a language the man had never heard before. He almost chuckled at how silly she sounded.

Petra, on the other hand, took the speech very differently. The buckskin took a long look at Tayui before rearing up and whinnying loudly. Ezra tugged her back down to earth with her reigns, at which the still-slightly-wild horse did not appreciate. She eventually fell silent and obedient, however, anxiously shaking her head and snorting while she stood still. Ezra laughed. ”What did you say to her? She’s totally neurotic but I’ve never seen her act like this,” Ezra said to his pale companion.

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#15
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[/html]She supposed that speaking to a horse when she was a wolf using pidgeon pidgen was probably not the best idea, but she hadn’t expected the horse to explode. The horse started making all sorts of noises that only such beasts could make and Tayui gave it a dry and withering look. Really, all this racket? She wanted to tell it to calm down, but she figured that it would be best to let Ezra do that given that the horse didn’t seem to like her too much. Ezra had to fight with it to calm it down and they were lucky that he was in his optime form. Tayui stood up in a vain attempt to help, but realized that there was nothing she could do. Next time, she’d remember not to tell horses to behave since they apparently took that as a threat.

After a while, she calmed down and Ezra laughed. Tayui hadn’t expected that at all; she would have thought that he’d be upset that she had scared his horse so badly. But it was better this way: she didn’t want to upset him, too.

“I just told her to behave,” she replied, giving the horse an odd look. “I guess no one’s spoken to her before. Or, not like that. I learned to speak some of the animal’s words from a bird, so I must sound awfully strange to her. And then my teacher had learned low-speech from squirrels, so I guess I must sound really odd.” She laughed as she realized this because she had only ever spoken to avians before and never much else. No wonder the horse had freaked out![html]
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#16
[html]End soon? I suck.

Tayui’s comment made the hybrid burst into a fit of disbelief and laughter. “Really?” the man couldn’t keep it all in, he thought the whole situation was a little ridiculous. “Do you think you could teach me sometime? I’d certainly love to learn to communicate with her directly. And perhaps I can get her to calm down a bit, I’m pretty sure you’re the first wolf to talk to her like that. She also just needs to get over herself, shes a big pain in my butt a lot of the time. I caught her up by the mountains, so she's still pretty wild. Though I thought after more than a year she'd be a little more calm. Guess not.” He shot Petra a glaring look before looking back at Tayui.






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#17
Sure! With your reply?
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[/html]Tayui nodded quietly as the wolf laughed, not wanting to disturb this delicate balance. Even though he'd managed to calm the horse down considerably, she didn't want to startle it again. It was difficult enough not trying to eat it, but if it attacked her, she knew that she would only do what was natural. That would be bad news for Petra since they'd probably both end up wounded and bruised, but not dead. A full-grown, healthy horse wasn't prey that even a pack would choose let alone a single wolf.

She was surprised that he was interested in learning low speech given how it hadn't really worked with his horse. But, as he'd said, maybe his horse was just a particular brand of crazy. She still didn't think she'd made a very good first impression, so she just shrugged and then nodded in response. She grinned when he said that she was a pain in the butt and she wished she could translate this to the horse. She would say: 'Ezra thinks that you are annoying' and it would probably start prancing around all over again. That wouldn't be very constructive.

"Sure, if our paths cross again, she replied. "Where exactly is your pack? Vinátta, right? How far is it from Inferni and Salsola, would you know?" [html]
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#18
[html]New thread soon? Smile <3

When she agreed, Ezra wagged his tail in excitement. If Tayui taught him sometime, he could share it with his pack too. Hell, he didn’t know her very well, but Ezra wondered if she would fit in Vinatta. She was older and probably had been in several packs throughout her time on this world, but VInatta was all about fresh starts. He paused for a moment after she spoke, wondering if he should extend the invitation to her. It was the right thing to do, he realized. Especially if he wanted to see her again.


“Vinatta is far past Inferni and Salsola, it is even past New Dawn. Go west for a few hours after New Dawn. Our borders reach to the top of the Grand Lake. If you reach the new pack that shamefully claimed the other half of the lake, you’ve gone too far. We are a pack of second chances, and family. If you ever get tired of being on your own, you should come check it out. It feels like a real home to me, maybe it could be the same for you one day.” He smiled, and got back on Petra’s back. “In fact, I must be going. I need to find my supplies and then head back to the pack, it’s a very long ride back and I hate riding in the dark,” he smiled and started Petra off at a trot. “Have a wonderful day, miss Tayui,” He said as he turned his head to his shoulder, giving her one last look before he was on his way.

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#19
Yes! Definitely. Big Grin
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[/html]Tayui was glad to hear that Vinátta was far away from Salsola: it was in her best interest to stay as far away as possible so as to ensure her own safety. She wasn't stupid: she had attacked a member of the pack and there was no way that they would forget that. But it had been right and it had been just, so there was no room for remorse.

She smiled when Ezra explained that it was a pack of second chances. She liked the sound of that, but she'd need to do some more digging to figure out if the culture was right for her. She'd enjoyed AniWaya and had loved its peace and quiet; but tragedy had ripped her from her home. Anathema and Salsola had helped her cultivate her monster, but even that wasn't enough to make them home for her.

"Thank you, Ezra. Please travel safe," she replied, smiling graciously. She hoped that she would indeed see him again soon. Perhaps not the horse: but Ezra, for sure.

She watched as he turned to leave. Once she saw the horse disappear into the distance, she turned to make her way back home. This venture out to Halifax had been quite pleasant and she was excited to tell Anu of this new pack (and even that they had neighbours, too, to the north). [html]
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