[html] Pardon my disjointedness while I try and get into her! Hoping for someone from Anathema, perhaps?
The sea grass looked much as it might in any other season, lining the embankment seperating shoreline from countryside. But between the golden stalks and the rushing ocean, there was not sand but snow. It was peculiar to think of the beach as a winter place, but the juxtaposition of the quintessential summer getaway and the frigid temperatures of the icy season was not an unpleasant one. Grace D'Angelo certainly enjoyed the miniature snow flurries that were stirred up in her wake, and she loped cheerfully along a meandering path leading northwards.
The nearly-five-month-old was reveling in her newfound freedom. She had convinced Carrow the coyote to leave her here at the beach, and had promised him she'd go right home to Addison, but once her kidnapper-turned-chaperone had departed out of sight in the western fields, she had turned her paws not home, to Phoenix Valley. Instead, she'd picked up on a stranger's scent trail that was steadily leading her towards a ragged seam of mountains. Truly, the girl had no intention of returning to Addison's side. She loved her sister, but seeing the world had opened up a thirst for adventure and independence that would not be satisfied by the predictable, safe lifestyle that Addison would provide.
Presently, the girl slowed her pace to a light jog, then stopped completely to shove her nose down into the snow. At a slight squeaking sound, the cinnamon pup cocked her ears forward intently, and tilted her head to listen. There was a mouse here, somewhere, and the pup's stomach growled for lunch. [/html]
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She blinked against the brightness of the snow, putting one arm up to protect her eyes from the fluff as the wind stirred it around. Every step that she took tossed snow up into the air, the wind bringing a good portion of it right back into her face. Naniko was making her way down the mountain toward the southern part of the territory, her large feet leaving deep tracks behind her. She stood on two legs today in her optime form, her preferred form, her long silver hair done up into hundreds of tiny braids that were caught together in a high ponytail.
She wore no clothes on this day, choosing to allow herself to blend into the snow and ice that layered the ground beneath her. It was the best natural camouflage around. The female passed through the border and into the lands beyond and the amount of snow that she had to walk through became less and less. There was the occasional drift, but this amount was nothing compared to what she'd walked through higher up in their mountainous territory.
The Angela refused to venture far from her newly established pack, wanting to be sure that she continually marked their borders, but she had a desire to forage a little farther away from home on this day. She carried a fishing net over one shoulder and her jade eyes focused on the shoreline of the cove ahead as she reached the sand. It was about time that her son Scorpius tried something new, as they hadn't had time to stop to fish on their journey to the new lands. Maybe he'd develop a taste for whatever she would catch in her net.
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[html]Truth be told, Grace was by no means a skilled hunter. Mostly, her attempts at catching her own food left her frustrated at best, and her ever-growing paws tended to get in the way so often that she ended up tripping and making a fool of herself whenever she tried to give chase. Nevertheless, the pup listened intently to the sounds of squeaking in the snow beneath her feet, vainly hoping that the rodent might simply reveal himself to be eaten. She knew mice tunneled in the snow drifts; you could see their holes every once in a while, if you knew where to look, but they moved so quickly it was hard to pinpoint where they were at any given time. Case in point, a sudden flurry of activity several wolflengths away told the girl her quarry had already reached the sea grass and was scurrying away under its protective cover.
Ears flattening back in disappointment, Grace sighed and began to walk again, more subdued than before. The afternoon sunlight glittered on the sheen of white that blanketed the beach, and the sea lapped teasingly at land's edge. So far, being on her own hadn't been much fun for Grace. Her single hour of solitude had left her simply bored, hungry, and altogether alone. The four-month-old sighed, pondering if she should return to Phoenix Valley after all and let Addison hunt for her and fawn over her--because, after all, Grace's return after weeks away was surely going to be considered a miracle.
Just as she was about to turn around and head south, however, the distant movement of a relatively large shape caught her eye. Squinting in the sunlight, the young D'Angelo was able to distinguish the shape of a Luperci moving towards the ocean. And, being the inquisitive and sociable and at times overbearing girl she was, Grace just had to go and check whoever-it-was out. And in true Gracy fashion, she had to gallop up the shoreline at top speed.
"Hey, hey you!" was Grace's overly-loud greeting as she neared a snowy-white female in Optime form. The child's chest tightened momentarily with a pang of jealousy for the ability to transform that she had not yet shown any inclination for, but it quickly passed as her attention was caught by a curious item in the other's possession. "What's 'at you got?" The pup's muzzle motioned at the net slung over the female's shoulder, and her tail whipped through the air at an alarming pace.[/html]
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She hadn't thought that she would find more of the D'Angelo family after she had crossed the mountain, thinking that she had the majority of it with her in the cult-pack, but it appeared that she had been wrong. When she'd left 'Souls behind her she had also left a few litters of grown pups...but other than them, there had been very few of her blood related family in the area. The female was used to being the only one of her kind around these parts, and the sudden appearance of so many relatives had both surprised and pleased her. They had popped up out of nowhere, it seemed.
Nani was just getting ready to throw the net into the sea when she was interrupted, a shrill voice piercing through the air around her. Her ears went up and her nose immediately went to work, trying to identify the youth and match her with one of the packs in the surrounding areas. A young wolf like that wouldn't be wandering alone without a guardian, she thought. She sniffed during the few moments that it took Grace to reach her, but was unable to come up with anything conclusive. Perhaps she was new to the area.
Not normally friendly with strangers, the mother blinked down at the excited youth. "Hey me?" Her low and gravelly voice came. "Who taught you to speak to an adult like that, pup?" If she had been raised without a stable family and was truly a loner, then such disrespect would be more forgiven in her eyes. "What's it look like?" Naniko cleared her throat, shaking her head. Had the girl never seen a net before? She turned her back to Grace, casting the net out into the water, beginning to drag it up the coast.
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[html]Who taught you to speak to an adult like that, pup? Grace furrowed her brow, ears flicking back. She'd only meant to get the female's attention. How else was she supposed to do it, other than saying 'hey you?' She couldn't very well use the stranger's name. "Ain't no one taught me that," she said finally, feeling that an answer was required. "It's just the way I talk. No one listens to a pup 'less I talk loud." This was as true a reason as any; back home Grace had never been able to get her parents' attention unless she whined loud enough, and in Phoenix Valley most of the adults were too busy with adult-ish things to humor a pup's desire for conversation.
The girl's attention was presently recaptured by the female tossing her net out to sea, and Grace tilted her head curiously. It was not that she had never seen a net, for she most likely had, somewhere in her past. But Grace was not a terrifically observant puppy, focusing instead on one thing at a time, and had never actually paid attention to the length of carefully-knotted cords that made up the fishing net, and so the girl had neither a name for the thing or any idea of its function. "I'onno what it is. Whatssit do?" As an unusually bright afterthought, she added, "ma'am." She'd heard the word once or twice, from other, more-polite pups.[/html]
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The girl seemed to think about what she had said, which was good enough for Naniko. She knew that young ones didn't always listen to adults, so even if someone had been there to teach her, who was to say that she even would have listened? She was strict with her own son, expecting him to act in a certain way. She wanted him to learn the ways of the pack and the ways of adults quickly, obediently, and without question so that he wouldn't embarrass her in front of the rest of the pack. He was an embarrassment at times. "Well there's no need to shout at me. I have good hearing, OK?" She said.
This net was a very good one, and she could feel it shaking in her hands as she caught a few things on her first swipe with it. The large luperci pulled it back up out of the water and onto the shore, picking the smaller fish out and throwing them back, keeping the larger and the few crabs and mussels that she'd dredged up. She hadn't answered Grace but now replied to her, tossing a fish toward her. She had plenty, and if Grace had no one then she would probably need something to eat. "It's a fishing net. You see how the fish got caught in it? They're stupid animals, easily caught if you have the right tools. Once my son learns how to shift I plan on teaching him how to use it..he's too young now, though. What's your name? You don't smell like you're from around here, girl."
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