A scream of rage drifted through the trees, echoing upwards and outwards through the surrounding woods. Cliché demanded that a flock of birds leave the trees at the sound but this did not happen; all wildlife with any sense about it had long since left the area.
Today was a rather special day for Neela. True as with any other day the date could mean any number of things to any number of people but to Neela it stood out among its peers as the day that her first and only son, Leon, was born. Unfortunately this was not as happy an occasion as it should be.
Neela and Leon's relationship was shot beyond repair. Neela hadn't seen her son since the day she had fled her hometown, her son's screams of rage and threats of death still echoing in her ears. Somehow Neela had managed to ignore the fact that she would never see her son again for the long months since then, pushing him out of her mind as best as possible.
Not now. The date of his birthday forced that fact to hammer home into Neela's head. Her son hated her and even if he didn’t, was a continent away with no way to find her; she was never going to see him again. Neela hadn’t taken the realisation well, falling apart in a fit of rage and sorrow. The only plus side to the whole situation was that she wasn't in ichika at the time, but had been out on a rare land hunting trip; a trip that had taken her far south of the borders.
The lakeside clearing where Neela had camped the night before was an absolute mess. Mud was churned up everywhere as the agitated dog had torn about, eventually turning to tearing at the very earth itself for lack of other objects to vent her frustration on. Shrubs, bushes and saplings alike had felt the collie's rage: uprooted, torn apart and scattered across the clearing. Aside from Neela herself the clearing was eerily quiet, the wildlife having long abandoned it. A lone rabbit lay on the shore, neck broken and scratches gouged into its stomach and back, as a testament to the wisdom of this decision.
For her part Neela was pacing restlessly backwards and forwards on the shore, her eyes wild and breath panting. Internally she raged at the unfairness of it all, how one mistake, one moment of weakness had cost her everything. In this state of mind the past months were all thrown away, all the friends she had made and the home she had claimed for herself reduced to nothing against the sense of loss. Her eyes alighted on a small sapling that had somehow survived her rage and she threw herself forwards, ripping and tearing into the plant with a ferocity that would have surprised anybody who knew her.
Breath coming in great heaves Neela pulled with all her strength, the already weakened roots of the sapling giving way as she tore it up and threw it across the clearing. Neela spared after it for a few seconds before, suddenly and without warning, she collapsed with a wordless cry, folding in on herself.
She wanted her son, she wanted Leon. Never mind that he hated her, never mind that he would probably kill her as soon as he saw her, she just wanted to see him one more time, to hear his voice. The one thing she wanted, and the one thing that she couldn’t have. Curling up into a ball Neela stuck her muzzle as far into her knees as she could and let loose a long, mournful howl, all her sadness and anger and loss thrown into one, long sound.
.risinghope b {font-weight:bold; color:#a38750; letter-spacing:.5px}
.risinghope p {text-indent:25px; padding:5px 15px; margin:0px;}
.risinghope {margin:0 auto; width:600px; background-color:#471e00; background-image:url(http://i43.tinypic.com/1vif8.png); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:3px double #885004; padding: 330px 0px 7px 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size:12px; color:#a27e36; letter-spacing:.5px; word-spacing:.9x; line-height:13px; text-align:justify;}
</style>
[/html]