I've been down this road and back again...

[Soran Aatte]

[html]Character Name: Soran Aatte.

Character Birthdate: 19th August 2003.
Whether she is a regular wolf or a Luperci: Luperci.

Your e-mail: glass_and_black_roses@hotmail.com
A secondary form of contact: Msn is the same as my email
How did you learn/hear about 'Souls?: I have been around here on and off since October 2005. I am very sorry but college pressure and general stress caused me to leave again, this time though I feel I have adjusted to college life and will be able to manage souls as well So I decided to come home.
OOC note: I am so, so sorry to whoever ends up reading this, I started writing and clearly I had left my imagination bottled up for too long, it is quite long Also word count: 2272 words

IC post:

The darkness fell about the land like a cloak, the stars twinkled in the inky sky, shining dimly next to the brilliance of the full moon, which hung low in the sky, lazy and round, having only just nudged itself free of the horizon. The spring air was chilled, zephyrs blowing through the trees, nudging the small leaves and blossom that was growing, causing a single flower, milky white in the moonlight, to break free of its hold on a gnarled tree branch and float slowly to the ground, dancing in the breeze, like a dancer caught in a waltz, until it finally came to rest in the cool grass of the open meadow.

Dew was beginning to form on the small blades of grass, wetting the delicate green spikes, sparkling in the luminescence of the large moon. A lone fox moved slowly across the meadow, its head bowed low, nose sniffing the ground tentatively, each footfall silent, each movement calculated. Suddenly the russet creature turned its head sharply, sharp eyes fixing on something behind it in the undergrowth, it took off at high speed, disappearing into the low bushes in front of it, tail firmly jammed between its legs.

For a moment, the meadow was silent, as if it were holding its breath… no creature moved; even the wind seemed to have halted in its twisting route through the trees. The pregnant pause seemed to stretch on for an eternity, though in reality it was less than a second, the brief lull before the chaos was soon broken. A slender black body flew through the air, back arching upwards, creating a perfect curve as it flew a few inches, before hitting the ground with a thud, the back of the body’s skull cracking against a large rock.

A low groan escaped Soran’s lips as she reached back, touching the back of her head with a slender finger, she removed it quickly when she felt the warm wetness of the blood there. She lay there, almost motionless, blinking slowly, waiting for the black patches in her vision to recede, waiting for the blur of her sight to return to sharp focus. The grass beneath her body was cold… too cold, and, as her vision began to clear, almost too green she noticed… except for the red stained against it… turning the grass dark in a patch by her left ankle… almost black in the cold moonlight.

The groan soon escalated into a growl as her jade eyes flicked upwards, fixing on the huge form of him approaching her, he was moving slowly, casually, as if he were simply sauntering through a park on a lazy stroll. The ebony lady struggled to raise her head, propping herself up on her elbows, eyes snapping with fire and fury. The large brown-furred male sauntered ever closer, making the short distance from where he had thrown Soran to where the obsidian lady had landed seem like it was miles. Lips slid back, revealing a row of sharp bloody teeth as Soran snarled. Her velvet ears flattened themselves against her skull, the two silver hoops in her left ear glinting in the light momentarily as she struggled to her feet, discovering that she could not put weight on her left ankle which was still bleeding profusely.

The male finally reached her, and despite her furious struggling he wrapped his strong arms around the lady and lifted her slender form as if she were a bag of potatoes. Soran thrashed, kicking and snarling, her fists pounding against his chest and shoulder, he flinched, but he walked relentlessly towards what seemed to be a reflection of the sky in the centre of the meadow. It took the jade eyed lady a moment to realise that what they were approaching was a lake, a perfectly still lake. He intended to drown her. Soran began to fight more furiously, finally giving into her relentless urge and sinking her sharp fangs into the flesh where neck met shoulder. Instantly her mouth was filled with copper tasting liquid, then it was the time for the brown male to thrash, trying to throw her off, but the dark lady clung onto him with fierce determination, clawing at his face with her sharp nails, gouging at her eyes.

The panicking male resorted to leaping, the dark lady still in his arms. Freezing water engulfed the pair of them, forcing all of the air from Soran’s lungs, stealing her breath. The scarred lady flailed, fighting against the water, her head finally breaking through the surface, the chill of the water already making her limbs heavy, making her breathing laboured, making her vision blurry. The male clearly had not been anticipating the chill of the water and was too, gasping for breath. In the momentary lull, the ebony lady saw her chance, and took it, her shaking fingers clasping around a rock by her feet, she moved closer to the brown male, raising the rock above her head, having to use both hands, her body wracked with shivers and therefore unable to keep the grip on the rock with only a single hand. With a snarl she brought the rock down on the head of the disorientated male, once, twice, again and again until he slipped under the surface of the cold water, a visible concave in his skull. A wash of relief rolled through the dark lady’s body, a smile managed to reach her trembling lips, no longer would she be pursued endlessly through miles of forest and acres of land, no longer would she have to spend her life running and hiding like she had when she was a child. With this thought her legs collapsed and she herself slipped under the water, letting the freezing blackness have her.

The ebony lady forced the memories back down, they were to stay with the violent act that Hollow had performed that had caused Dhalia and Khaden to be conceived, they were to stay with the memories of the bloody Inferni- Aremys war, they were to stay with the nagging feeling that something beyond forgiveness had been done when her youngest pups were born and especially the memories of the morning when she had awoken to find that the pups she had conceived with Akaro, who had once been so sweet to her, who had once held her to his brown furred body and declared she would never lose him, had died before even getting the chance to live.

After awakening on the side of that lake, her lungs burning from the lack of oxygen, her limbs heavy and near useless from being numbed by the cold, Soran had made a decision, she needed love in her life, the life she lived currently was filled with hate, she needed to be amongst friends again, amongst loved ones and family, she needed to go home. For days she had lived beside that lake, regaining her strength for the long trek back to the only place the dark lady had ever known as home.

But when she arrived she wished she hadn’t, the smell of the land was dead, stale, the ground was scattered with ashes… so many ashes, there seemed to be nothing left of the lands that the ebony lady had once rejoiced to live within. Slowly she walked through the dead lands, eyes wide with shock. There was an emptiness in her chest, a hollow hole where her heart should be, there was nothing here, no-one, Conri, Dhalia, Khaden, Deuce… all gone, her loved ones were all missing from the ashen lands. Had they perished? Had they all found themselves trapped by the flames that had obviously ravaged the lands? Were they all really gone? A single tear fell from the dark lady’s eye, running down the pale scar on her face, finally dripping off the end of her muzzle. With renewed determination, the fae decided to visit the only one of her beloved friends that she knew would still be within the lands… Phasma.

The ebony lady had sat for almost an hour beside the grave of her beloved friend, her alpha, one of the first wolves she had ever met when she had arrived on these lands all those years ago, a lost child back then. Now a weary warrior whose life was tainted with tragedy sat beside her old friend once more. And then the sobs came, Soran cried for everything, everyone, her sons, her daughter, her friends, her lovers, all gone, all past, all sorely missed by the fae who had abandoned each one over and over, and now it was too late, too late to make amends, they were all gone, surely they had all perished in the flames. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she sat there, the tears now blinding her, the lands hid behind a wall of water that shrouded each eye. Guilt and shame burned in her chest, she should have come back sooner, not gone on a foolish wild goose chase for her youngest children, not fled at the nearest sign that they were close by, she should have waited, let them come to her, not gone on a fruitless errand that had taken her away from those she loved. Fresh tears sprung to her eyes as she thought of her red boy, her son, who had been so much because of her, now she could never apologise for all that had been her fault. Soran clutched at handfuls of ash as she sat in her old homeland, wishing there was a way to turn back time, to see her old loved ones again.

Finally, she raised herself from the gravesite and began to walk, not paying attention to where she was headed, walking aimlessly, in circles at times, stopping only to sleep, there was no longer any need to eat, that need had died when she knew that her children and Deuce, the beautiful snowy fae who she had loved so were gone. Endless days stretched before her now, she filled each one with slow, trudging footfalls and the grumbling of her empty stomach. Each day the sun rose and the sun set, the sky would darken and lighten with the passing of time, and each day Soran waited for it all to stop, when everyone was gone what point was there to the day and night? There was one endless stretch of guilt and pain for the dark furred female, there was no need for any changes in the world, they weren't even a distraction anymore, there was no longer an urge to gaze at the stars, no longer an urge to lay in the sun and enjoy its warmth, all that was left was the urge to walk and the pain, the constant, unrelenting pain. After what seemed an eternity she gave in, her nose testing the air at last, testing to see if there was any prey in the near vicinity, something slow moving that she could catch without too much of a fight, her hunger was making her weak, the obsidian warrior felt more frail now than she could ever remember being.

She inhaled deeply as a slight breeze wafted past her. Soran disregarded it for the merest moment, there was no scent of prey, it did not matter. It took a moment for the familiar tang of wolf scent to register in her brain, and even longer for the realisation to crush to powder what Soran believed to be fact, Conri was dead, burned in the fire, he must have been, but this sudden scent on the breeze changed all that, her little boy was alive, and he was close. Her heart skipped a beat and then was suddenly pounding in her chest, faster than it had done in so long.

Something stirred within the dark lady, anticipation and exhilaration that she did not know she had suddenly spread through her body, tensing muscles, drawing strength from somewhere, the strength to run along this endless stretch of sandy beach she had found herself wandering along. And so she did, moving with some of the old grace she had once had, the muscles rippling under dark fur reminiscent of when she had been a much younger lady, a much happier soul. Sand sprayed behind her as her feet left imprints on the damp sand. The ebony lady began to move more quickly that she had in weeks, months, the long curled waves of her ebony mane flowing behind her like a cape as she raced towards the scent she had caught on the breeze. From somewhere deep within her, a part of her she had believed to be dead, a laugh broke forth, filling the air with the melodious tune of her happiness just for a moment.

Finally she skidded to a halt, realising that she was standing upon the borders of the lands, it was obvious, the scent was much stronger here, the territory was clearly marked. Despite the motherly urge that coursed through her body, the urge to race through the lands until she had her son in her arms, she remained at the borders, she was still a guest on these lands, besides after her last disappearing act she had no guarantee that Conri would want to see her. And so she simply raised her maw and released a single howl, before seating herself cross legged on the sand, head titled to one side slightly, ears swivelling as she awaited a returning call, eyes darting at every movement on the beach. And so the ebony lady waited.


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