let's not believe it's true - Printable Version +- 'Souls IPB Archive (November 2007–October 2012) (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb) +-- Forum: Dead IC (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb/forumdisplay.php?fid=110) +--- Forum: Dead Topics (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb/forumdisplay.php?fid=21) +--- Thread: let's not believe it's true (/showthread.php?tid=8050) |
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- Beppe Agapito - 10-01-2009 [html] It had been a long journey, a trip from the epicentre of his grief to the broken lands that surrounded it. Home had always been a nebulous term for the wolf, a word defined not by the physical places that he had slept but by the friends, lovers, relatives that had surrounded him. With Empusa gone, the one he had called home for the last year and a half as they ran their paws across a different continent, Beppe was left with a frail sense of what home really was. He was unable to find comfort in the den they had shared and had left it immediately, slinging his one remaining son into his arms and taking off to the east. At first he had not been aware of his destination, but as forest floors and wispy plains fell beneath his paws it became clear. It was the first place he had known on this continent, where he had felt safe and found friends, and most importantly it was where he had met her, the one whose blood pumped through the warm bundle cradled in his arms.
Each time he thought of her his eyes welled up with tears, their bitter heat trailing down his face. He did nothing to stop them, and indeed he wallowed in them as if his grief was a safe place to hide from the world. Otto was held tightly against his chest, and when they stopped to eat he was not allowed to wander more than a few meters away. He had been the cautious one, the one who had stayed on the shore when the others had jumped in, but still Beppe did not trust him to get lost. The male had lost everything else, and fate seemed fickle enough to steal his last baby away, as well.
Beppe did not sleep, and barely ate. Clinging to the feeble hope that Empusa would be back where they had met, he walked on. It was an unlikely rendezvous point, but his mind was not following reasonable lines of thought. He had invested so much of himself into his family, and now that they were gone it felt as if he was swept down the river and lost forever too. The wolf was little more than a shell, his only purpose to keep the pup in his arms alive and fat and to maintain himself in case the rest of his family somehow miraculously appeared. It was unlikely, perhaps even impossible, but Beppe would cling to whatever he could.
The wolf had lost track of time as he wandered, lost track of the number of times he had set his foot down, the number of times the sun had risen and fallen again. It had been ages, though, and his fur was ragged and dull from exhaustion, his mind edging on delirious. Though it was a stupid hope, a futile clutching at any little fraction of optimism he could imagine, he was counting on her being there, back in the land of Bleeding Souls, safe and dry and cradling the rest of their beloved children in her arms.
She was not. Beppe had walked through the scorched lands where they had met, towards the place that they had settled after the fire. The hope that had served as a paper thin mask dissolved and the desperation that lurked beneath showed its ugly face. Clutching Otto more tightly now, the wolf wandered towards a place he had once called home. It lacked his relatives and his friends, but it reminded him of their presence. The giant house, looking out across the Quartz Shoreline, still bore the changes the wolves had made to it.
He did not go in yet, and stayed instead upon the beach, staring out across the ocean. This ocean was his constant companion, the only one that had been there throughout his entire life. He had missed it when he was in the Rocky Mountains with Empusa, but the girl had filled the hole. It seemed that she had made the hole deeper, and now that she was gone all the water in the sea was unable to fill it.
He was still able to find some solace in the ocean and its eternal lullaby, but he hated what it reminded him of, he hated the roaring rivers that fed it. The male was torn and numb, and as the darkness started to descend for the hundredth time he sat upon the beach, knees bent in front of him and toes in the gentle waves. He stared at the sea, and then stared at his son on his lap fondly and sadly. The pup was not meant to grow up with no siblings and no mother. Beppe was not enough, but he was all the boy had. - Otto Agapito - 10-02-2009 [html]
- Beppe Agapito - 10-03-2009 [html] Beppe did not like to see the little pearls of tears that formed in his son's eyes, and he closed his own for a moment, opening them only once they had been raised to the ocean. The sun was setting behind them, casting its light across the sea, while the darkness seemed to rise from the water in the distance. It crept across the sky, towards the two empty wolves that sat upon the beach. The disruption of leaving the den had surely upset Otto, and each time the child muttered his question Beppe had to turn away for a moment, swallow hard and muster words. Perhaps it had been a bad idea to leave the lands the pups were born, but following the river downstream had not given him his children or his mate back, and the wolf didn't think he could hang around the place that he had had them last. They were down the river, lost forever, and the male had to accept that. It was a powerful creature that wouldn't stop until it reached the many lakes it drained into, miles of miles of winding water that carved at the rock as it went. A bundle of flesh and bones was nothing compared to its brutishness. Having followed that beast to Ghost Lake, Beppe had given up on ever finding the rest of his family again.
As he did every night, when his only companion asked him where his brother was, Beppe held his breath. Beppe could remember how they had curled up in the den, the pups all together as if they were a single furry creature, with their parents curled around them. It was strange to think that life could take such a sudden turn, but it did, and like the river it was carrying him on to something new. So, here he was, the newest thing he could handle. The Insieme house lay behind him, a silent sentinel, a reminder and a safe haven. That was where they would sleep this night, and perhaps Beppe would be able to get some rest, cradled by the ghosts of his past, the lullaby of the sea rocking him back and forth.
Otto was so quiet, and if this hadn't been the case before the incident his father might have been even more worried. It was clear that the pup was confused and lost, but the ebony wolf didn't have the heart to tell him where exactly his brother was. Instead, swallowing, he said softly, "You'll sleep with me again tonight, k?" As the boy rearranged his body, Beppe stroked his fur with his free hand. It was a comforting motion, as if it was serving to remind him that his son was still there, and he did it repeatedly.
After a while, as darkness started to seem permanent, the wolf stood up slowly, holding Otto to his chest. With a last glance to the sea, he walked up towards the Insieme house, where it sat proudly despite the years of salt that had worn away its paint. The quiet creaking of the front door as Beppe pushed it open was familiar, and the scents that somehow remained in the air were comforting. Feeling a tiny bit of relief after so much grief, he trudged up the stairs to his old room. It was rather chilly in there, and he placed Otto gently on the bed before moving around to close the window. The salt air seemed to have permeated everything, the bed covers, the wood, the books that sat in a shelf in the corner. Beppe sat down on the bed beside his grayer son, smiling faintly at him for a moment, his eyes watery, before laying on his side facing the boy. Pulling him closer to his chest, where everything seemed safer, the wolf sung defeatedly, "Oh hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, and black are the waters that sparkled so green..." - Otto Agapito - 10-03-2009 [html]
- Beppe Agapito - 10-07-2009 [html] Night settled in like a ghost, bringing a chill with it as it wrapped its arms around the house, the room, the bed, until it felt as if it was holding the two wolves alone. As Beppe continued to sing he watched his son's eyes drift closed, observing as the little fidgety movements that Otto was so prone to slowed to a stop. Once the boy had drifted to the world of dreams - or nightmares, as did Beppe - the elder wolf was gripped by thoughts. There was a transition, or at least he imagined one, between the last breath one took while they were awake and the first one taken after sleep set in. He watched Otto breathe, and felt very much alone. The cold ghost of night clutched him alone, now, and despite the bit of warmth at his chest he was unable to fight it off. Sleep would come to him, as well, but he didn't know when. Waiting was always the worst part, the time between Otto's sleep and his own always feeling empty and unreal, as if he had stepped into a strange world. It was not pleasant at all.
Despite the pain of waiting the wolf made it to the morning. It was a strange night, filled with dark skies and rushing waters. Otto's humming seeped into the dreams, and as Empusa rose vertically from the waters she was singing along, the words freezing like ice around the male's heart. Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas, she gurgled through a mouthful of water and mist, over and over and over. Beppe felt like he was choking, like his organs were trying to all escape his body by way of his mouth at the same time. It was a tightening, painful, horrible feeling, and just as he began to choke on water as well he woke up, eyes opening suddenly. His heart was beating faster than it was supposed to, the orange light of morning was blinding. As he realized where he was, piecing things together as he did every morning, he exhaled and let his eyes wander to the puppy that was stretching himself out. The song seemed less horrible escaping from his tiny body than the waterlogged one that had risen in his dreams.
It was partially relief that put the small smile on his face, a smile that was rough around the edges but at least existent. Mostly it was the innocent humming of the boy and the little hobble he was doing around the bed, the appreciation of still having something he could hold on to. Without Otto and the tiny bit of hope of finding the rest of his family (quickly fading), the wolf would be gone as well.
After a few moments of watching the boy, Beppe said quietly, "Good morning, Toto." |