Up is the New Down
#1
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Nayru had slept soundly throughout the night, her belly full for the first time in days and her sore feet finally stilled. Conor had been very kind and accommodating the day before, he had told her a bit about the pack and her place here but she had asked nothing of him. And when he woke and left in the morning, she rolled over and went back to bed after mumbling something about being good and not going too far from his home. Her sleep took her far into the afternoon, her tiny muscles relishing in the rest, her mind soaking in the silence. Of course she dreamt, but it was not of her parents or sisters or back home or even Conor and all the new wolves she might meet. It was the white lady again, her navy eyes constantly peering at and following Nayru through her dream world, reprimanding her now and then when she took a wrong turn, said the wrong thing, or thought the wrong thing. Only when she was dreaming could the white lady really read Nayru's heart, but in the short time they had spent together the grandmother wolf had learned to read the girl pretty well. And Nayru knew even in her dreams that this woman was wise, worth listening to.

Only when the sun beat too strongly against her lidded eyes did Nayru finally stir, the images of the white lady falling away as Nayru struggled to remember where she was. Conor's house. Woozily she brought herself to her feet, peering about the room as if, like in her sleep, it might suddenly vanish and she would be swept away to somewhere else. When the room stayed stable and Nayru was certain she was in the waking world she stumbled over to the food left for her that morning, ate her meal and turned towards the door. For a moment her intentions wavered. What exactly was out there? The black and white splashed pup could remember only vaguely what they had passed on their way here yesterday, she hadn’t stepped outside since. Inhaling, as if to take a dive underwater where the air was scarce, she burst out into the world.

The world was just as she left it. Grass on the ground and clouds in the sky, nothing had really changed since the day before and this comforted Nayru, who took a few tentative steps away from the haven Conor had brought her to. When those steps away from the house brought no harm, she took a few more, turning back to see if suddenly anyone would appear, beckoning her back. No one appeared and she took a few more steps away. When she was far enough away, still able to see it of course, she paused. There. That was done. Now what? Nayru did really want to go much further, she didn’t know where to go. The pack was safe, or it should be. Still, it was best to wait for instructions, and the dream child seated herself easily, cherry eyes wandering up to the sky. It was at least a nice day for sitting.


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#2
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*nomnomnomnom* Nayru's so adorable. XD


If everyone cared and nobody cried.


Bris had decided to take the long way in her search today. The white woman was in her optime form, having made a point not to shift her body while her wounds still healed. White bandages were wrapped around both hands, hiding the cuts that ran horizontally across each palm. Another set of bandages was wrapped all the way around her torso, from just under her chest down to the middle of her stomach. Cotl's sword could have done far more damage than it had, and Bris was grateful the edge had only shallowly scraped across her ribs and hands as she'd foolishly attacked the coyote in a fit of grief-stricken rage. The Stormbringer had found herself sticking inside the borders of Dahlia de Mai while she healed, knowing she was at a disadvantage in her inability to shift for the time being. Should she encounter any dangers, Bris wouldn't be able to shift to her faster lupine form until the wound across her ribcage was at no risk of reopening. It was shallow, yes, but it would bleed substantially if aggitated.



Bris had occupied her recovery time with following in her late sister's hobby of jewelcrafting. Kol had left behind several unfinished pieces when she'd died, and countless supplies for pieces never even started. Bris' first project was finding a suitable bottom half for Kol's old slave-style earring, and she hadn't found anything fitting in the wooden box her older sister had kept her materials in. But the day was only beginning and the weather was beautiful, a perfect day for a short outting to the old human jewelry shops in Wolfville. The abandoned old buildings with their shattered showcases and hidden drawers of precious metals and gemstones were a treasure trove to Bris, and Kol had drawn up a decent map of the best locations in the town. The large piece of deerskin Kol had used for her map was held in Bris' hands as she strode quietly down the street, her footsteps deliberate but unhurried, her dark leather satchel slung across her torso to lay over her left hip.



The white yearling was on her way to one particularly juicy old jewelry shop when she passed what she knew to be Conor's new home. The house he'd shared with his brother and Alexey had been one of the casualties of the tragic second war with Inferni, but thankfully it had only been the structure that had been lost and no one's lives within. The little family group had since moved to an old Victorian home in Wolfville, one that was in overall better condition than the little house near Flander's Field had been. It was an adorable old home, but one that was a bit too human for Bris' liking. Her brother-in-law's treehouse suited her simple ways just fine.



As she passed by the old intricately-designed house, something unusual caught her eye. A little puffball of white and black sat out front, just beyond the front steps and into the yard. Raising a brow in curiosity, Bris changed direction and walked over, hoping she wouldn't scare the poor thing. "Well hello there little one! Where did you come from?" The girl smiled softly as she approached, her voice gentle and lilting as she crouched down near the pup. Bris' time in Dahlia under Cercelee's leadership had been extremely brief, and her knowledge of the pack members from the same time was equally limited, but something about the way the little girl's colors splashed together tugged at the Stormbringer's memory.



If everyone loved and nobody lied.


Table by Gina!
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#3
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I will be gone for about two weeks, so don’t rush Jassy poo!

More than mindful of her surroundings, Nayru sat still as stone as the strange creature approached her. Although it had only been spoke about briefly she knew that the creature who approached and the creature that she was were the same kind of creature, though shape differed considerably. Yet she had yet to see anyone shifted before and the sight was startling. Nayru’s eyes widened the closer the two legged canine came to her. Could she really turn her body into something like that? It seemed implausible, but her mother had told her about shifting and Nayru couldn’t recall a time her mother had ever lied. One day she would try, was it hard? Did one just do it? Maybe she should have asked more question when her mother had been teaching her and her sisters, but Nayru had been preoccupied at the time. If she recalled correctly there had been the pressing matter of Farore’s ear to chew upon.

The werewolf, a woman rather, spoke then and Nayru was so transfixed that she didn’t answer right away. Her scarlet eyes took in every detail, from the bandages to the mismatched eyes. The woman’s voice was friendly and warm and Nayru let the sound of it wash over her like a wave. Then, like a rubber band stretch to taunt, she snapped back to life, realizing that she had let a good long moment lapse as she stared rudely at the woman. Oh! Uh... What had she asked? Where did she come from. Well that was a silly question to be certain, Nayru thought. I came from my mother. As did all wolves, and Nayru didn’t think that this woman didn’t know that. Unless no one ever told her. Or maybe there was another way for life to form. Magic perhaps. Maybe this woman didn’t think she was real, maybe Nayru appeared ghostly or as a dream to her.

And then a really scary thought came to her. What if she were a dream? What if she only existed when her dreamer was asleep, thinking about her? Yet then her whole world was part of that dream, and since this world was all she knew, it wasn’t so awful. She didn’t know what she was missing out on in anyone else’s dream. Suppose though the dreamer forget to think about her, just her. Would Conor notice her missing one day when she wasn’t being dreamt about? Or would Conor have forgotten her too, since she was no longer part of the world. The idea trouble her and her small brows knit together in concentration. In order to bring herself back to the woman at hand she spoke. I had two sisters too. There! That seemed relevant.

Again Nayru’s eyes swept the woman, and landed on the bandages. Was it bad? Nayru was at first scared to ask, for what if the woman answered and said, yes, the wounds were fatal? That would be hard news to take. But no, she was alive now and it seemed likely that had the wounds been fatal they would have killed her already. So Nayru, in her sweet inquisitive voice, settled upon another question. Who hurt you? It seemed more than important. If Nayru knew who did this, perhaps she could stay away from him or her. Or one day even avenge this woman, who was part of her pack and perhaps her first friend besides Conor.


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#4
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FAIL JASSY IS FAIL. =X

Bris had to laugh at the little girl's reply to her question. What other answer had she expected? All wolves came from their mothers, whether they knew them or not! Maybe it was true what some souls said about grown-ups making the world much more complicated than it truly was. Besides, what did it matter where she'd come from? The bicolored pup was a part of Dahlia now and that's all Bris needed to know.


Before the yearling had a chance to ask about the pup's briefly mentioned sisters, she caught the sudden seriousness of the child's gaze as those scarlet eyes took in the luperci's bandages. The ones that wrapped around each of her hands were relatively clean, covered only in a sparse dusting of dirt from her rummaging earlier in the day. The one large one that circled her torso, however, was stained with a reddish brown where some of her blood had begun to show through. The cut across her ribs had been shallow, but wide and stubborn when it came to healing. There wasn't a day that went by that that particular bandage stayed completely spotless.


The pup's innocent little question brought a warm smile to Bris' face. Keeping that smile, she took a more comfortable position in the grass beside the youngling, folding her legs indian-style beneath her. "It was a coyote from the Inferni clan, but I can't really say it was his fault. I was stupid, and he gave me plenty of chances to just turn around and go home. I was angry, and I let my temper get out of control, and he stopped me from crossing the clan border and probably doing something even more stupid." It had taken her a little while to figure it out, but it was the truth. Had the Inferni guard with the wicked sword and battering ram of a horse let Bris simply do what she'd gone there to do, the young luperci doubted she'd have made it out with only a few shallow wounds to show for it. And then what? What would her senseless death have proven? That she'd learned nothing from the sister she so desired to emulate, that's what.


"You see, someone from the Inferni clan took away someone very dear to me; he took her away forever. I miss my sister Kol more than anything, and I blamed all of Inferni for what happened. I wanted to hurt the one who took her away, very badly. I let my anger build up too much, and I made a huge mistake. I'm still angry, but there's a difference between angry and stupid. I was stupid." She smiled down at the little girl again, reassuring her that she really was ok. Only then did it occur to her that her explanation might have been a little over the very young pup's head.



Table by Marishka!
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#5
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Ears perked at the mention of Inferni. The white woman had mentioned them on their way here, but she had said they weren’t important just yet. As long as Nayru stayed in Dahlia de Mai they probably weren’t too important, unless they came here. Instead this woman’s problems were present and therefore more pressing. Nayru eyed the bandage again and decided it was already taken care of; adults had better grasps on that than she anyway. What else could she do? The lady said her sister had been taken away forever and Nayru could tell by the tone what the woman was really conveying. There was no bringing back the dead. All the woman had left was anger and emptiness, which Nayru decided was unacceptable. Anger had a place, sure, but Nayru tried to imagine her sisters leaving this world and Nayru only feeling anger and sadness at their passings. The greatest loss wouldn’t be their physical bodies but Nayru’s state of mind.

Yet as her cherry eyes swept over the woman she couldn’t quite think of what to do to remedy the situation. Mostly it was that she didn’t even understand the situation fully. Why did he take away your sister? Idly Nayru’s charcoal paw scratched at the ground, giving the impression that perhaps her mind wished to be elsewhere, although in reality she was simply focusing too intensely on processing all the information she had just received and getting ready for the answers to her inquires. And why do you blame all of Inferni? The questions were innocent, empty of any judgments. Nayru was like a sponge, she simply just wanted to soak everything in, and now that she already felt involved in this woman’s story she needed to be filled with it.



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#6
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I really need to make this thread my priority, and I will do so until it's done. XD

The child seemed a little confused by Bris' long-winded answer to her innocent question. As Bris watched the little girl patiently, however, it seemed like everything she'd said was simply taking a little time to soak in. The woman was admittedly impressed when Nayru digested everything and still had more questions to ask. There were some adults who found the endless questioning by children to be annoying, but the Stormbringer was only amused and glad to provide the answers the little pup was looking for. She remembered when she would bug Drey and Kol with her infinite inquiries and they would never fail to indulge her every wonder.


Still smiling her soft, warm smile, Bris folded her legs beneath her as she realized she may be spending a bit of time here with the girl. It took the woman a moment or two to figure out the best way to answer Nayru's innocent questions, as the topic was still one that stung, no matter how well Bris had come to mask that. The wound left by Kol's death was one that Bris knew would always leave a scar. "Well, it's a little hard to explain. You see, there was recently a war between our pack and Inferni; our packs hated each other very badly and many souls on both sides were hurt. Our leader, Conor's father Haku, had a darkness inside him that made him think things that weren't true, and made him act strangely and want to hurt people. He started the war between us and Inferni, and even after Haku was kicked out by Conor and the war was over, there were some who still felt hatred toward the other side." Kol had been killed only a few days after Haku's exile and the truce between the packs had been sworn. The sisters had been on a peaceful visit, looking for a coyote Kol had called a friend even throughout the war. Bris couldn't say whether it had been chance or fate that had placed Hybrid in their path, but whatever the reason, he had stolen the white woman's closest loved one.


"The members of Inferni tried to burn down a lot of Dahlia's houses one night in a sneak attack. Every time we fought, they seemed to fight with more cruelty and viciousness than any of us ever did. I believed they were all like the male who took Kol from me, mindless, cruel, evil animals without worth. Kol had believed otherwise, keeping her friendship with Anselm, but she was wrong. The war was over, and that Inferni dog killed her anyway. We were on a peaceful visit, not even on Inferni lands, and it didn't matter." Bris' awareness drifted a bit as memories of that day surfaced in her mind. His eyes were the color of blood, Kol's blood, and she would never forget them. She didn't even know his name, and no longer held the desire to wipe out all of Inferni in a fit of grief-stricken rage, but it wasn't uncommon for thoughts of revenge to bubble up now and again.



Table by Marishka!
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#7
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hahaha, it feels weird to be playing Nayru two months younger since puppies develop so fast!


Her mind reeled as she tried to comprehend all the new knowledge. War? Nayru knew the word but had no personal experience to back it up. War wasn’t reality, not now. Didn’t Bris see that even if the war was not so long ago its presence was no longer in Dahlia de Mai? Sadly along with her sister Kol but they had to let go. Maybe it was simply that the coyote that had killed Kol hadn’t let go. Nayru wished she could make that coyote let go and understand, but she knew she didn’t have those abilities. She was only a child and all she could manage right now was to stare wide at Bris, her tiny mouth pursed in an “Oh” shape as she thought of something else to say.

Words failed her though, which meant perhaps she had filled her capacity for new information. Or no, that was not it, not quite. Her capacity was limitless, but it did take some time to process and digest before she could consume anymore. Haku was a foreign name to her, should she pursue information about him? Or more about Inferni? Or maybe she should ask something different all together and make Bris forget this conversation. Unsure until the words came Nayru found her voice, as all children do eventually. Are coyotes cruel? I mean all of them? Nayru knew Bris believed some of them to be, but the little girl was looking for a universal truth. Coyotes couldn’t be so very different from wolves, could they?



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#8
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You know, this thread is perfect. ^^ Nayru is making Bris rethink her feelings, which given the way I play her now she's already done, but I can finally say this is where it starts. XD YAY! And I know exactly what you mean about playing so far behind. We can wrap this one up soon and then have a more recent one if you'd like, especially since Nayru's had her first shift! I want Bris to give her a little gift to congratulate her, sort of a "coming of age" thing, like a necklace or earring or bracelet or something. What metal and stones do you think would look best for her? 8D

It wasn't until Nayru spoke that Bris seemed to come out of her daydream state. It was then that she realized she'd been chewing her lip, again, and she smiled softly at the black and white girl. Nayru's question was one that Bris found herself asking to no one in particular more than once. "You know what? I'm not really sure. The only ones I know are the ones in Inferni that we fought against, and they all seemed to be pretty cruel and ruthless. But Kol was friends with one of them, somehow. From what she told me, he was a relative of the leader of the clan, and someone a bit higher in the ranks. His name is Anselm, and if Kol trusted him, he's either exactly what she thought he is or he's one heck of an actor."


A lone cloud floated past the sun as Bris uncurled her legs. Content to sit and talk with the young girl, she stretched them out and lowered herself down to her side, propping herself up on her elbow. "I do know that the guard I fought with on Inferni's border could have just attacked me as soon as I showed up, but he didn't. In fact, he gave me several chances to just turn around and go home, but I couldn't. It wasn't until he knew I wasn't going away that he finally attacked, and he didn't follow me when I retreated, either. I know if it had been Kol's killer that had met me at the border, he wouldn't have hesitated to kill me. Maybe they're really not all the same, I don't know." The yearling was completely unaware that her tone had gone from an adult speaking to a child to an adult speaking to someone of the same age. to be honest, Bris wasn't entirely sure why she was going into such detail with the small girl, but her questions were making her think about things a bit more clearly than she had been. Maybe it was something she needed. "What do you think, Nayru? Do you think there's good in everyone, no matter what?"


Table by Marishka!
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#9
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Garnet or ruby, duh XD Short and ending,lalala. Kris is lame with posting.


Nayru sucked in the words, Bris suddenly seeming to rethink her previous stance. Nayru could tell there was still some distrust and distaste lurking beneath the surface, but the white woman seemed to be being fair. That was all anyone could try to do, be fair and think everything over. Nayru smiled as Bris admitted she really didn’t know, and the little girl shrugged. She didn’t know anything about coyotes as a whole, but she did know individuals and so at Bris’ question Nayru beamed. Her voice was solemn and serious, for this was one of the few things she knew. Of course everyone has good in them. It was unthinkable that there was a soul without one ounce of good in them.

And with that Nayru was content. She didn’t want to poke and pry at the topic anymore because her mind was wandering to more important things, like exploring her new home, only a few days known to her, and meeting the others, and finding the white dream lady again. And so Nayru sat for a moment looking up at Bris with her cherry eyes, until a valid and polite way to end the conversation occurred to Nayru. Thank you miss, I think I want to go explore a little now. It was nice talking with you. Nayru thumped her tail a few times and smiled sweetly, itching to be excused now by the older woman.



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#10
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Didja want me to start up a new thread for us so Bris can give Nayru her giftie? 8D I'll get this archived with my post. ^^ NINJASTALKERBRIS GO.

Bris had to smile genuinely at Naryu's answer. It was the same answer she would have given as a child, and the same philosophy Kol had had. Drey was another story, but that was just the way he was. "You know Nayru, I think you're right." Her smile widened into a warm grin with her words, and she felt strangely like some unseen weight had been lightened on her shoulders. She had no idea why she felt that way, but Bris couldn't say she was ungrateful for it.


A soft chuckle escaped Bris' mouth as her little companion finally seemed to reach the limit of her puppyish attention span. Her light voice was eager to please in its politeness, and Bris' smile continued as she pulled herself to her feet. "Well then, I think you should go explore! There are plenty of places in Dahlia to find some adventure. Just be careful, and howl for us as loud as you can if anything happens, ok?" Knowing the kind of trouble she used to get herself into as a pup, Bris winked at the little girl and headed off around the side of the next house. She had no doubt the child would be safe within Dahlia's borders, but seeing as she had nothing better to do, she waited for Nayru to scamper off before slipping back out and following her scent trail. It wouldn't hurt the pup to have an unseen shadow looking out for her, just in case.


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