memories, no more then shadows
#1
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Rav, sugarwoods.


Anu had ventured far. It was not like her to travel so far from the borders of her home and yet she was drawn away. There were few that did not feel the need to wander, a truth she had lived herself in her time as a wolf among other packs. But as a leader Anu saw the passing through of wolf after wolf, their hearts drawn away and towards the rising or setting Sun. She did not envy, nor judge them. Their hearts sang a song other then the Dreaming chorus. Who was she to fault their hearts? Anu was nothing but a old wolf, a woman who gathered flowers into her basket and rambled about the warmth of the Sun and how if they were simply as honest and consistent as he then the world would be without fighting and wars.

The tawny female walked slowly through the wood, her body upright and her blue water hued eyes watching the shadows of the wood. She had come here in her lupus form, to travel in it was simply easier and more comfortable. But once she had noticed the gathering of pines Anu had taken to her two legs to wander the thick forest. Her memory served her well, it had been more then two winters since she had been here. But she thought of the dark wolf she had met here. He had been hunting perhaps, no... it was their intent to hunt these grounds. But the woman remembered no more. Maybe it was the distinct smell of the sugar that made her remember so well. But his name did not come back to her, lost as most of her earlier years were. Dust scattered to the wind.

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#2
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As it was odd to see the hulking monster outside of the cavernous system of Anathema's primary homes, so too was it equally strange to see him outside of the lands entirely. He knew what drove him from the depths. Naniko. They were not tied to one another as anything more than the parents of young Scorpius D'Angelo, but he found himself in silent outrage regarding her current condition. Why? What reason was there for him to feel such a trivial thing as jealousy? He expected nothing from her...but perhaps he felt he deserved something, having followed her from the ruins of his home. It was this jealousy, this disgust and irritation, that drove him from the pack caves and into the world that sat outside. To the Sugarwoods, a place visited so rarely in his Anatheman life.

But it appeared that he wasn't the only one seeking the forest's comfort. Crimson eyes watched animals dart about the trees, the breeze bringing peace to his mind — until the scent of something larger, something possibly more dangerous, tainted the air. Heavy paws crushed the earth beneath them as he, caution bristling along his back, sought the source.

The sight of her left him vaguely surprised; it wasn't that he was capable of recognizing a lost face, but simply that she was a she, a pretty and (compared to his own large body) small she. Perhaps his memory should have served him better, for as he studied her features from his distance, fog clouded the past. It sparked a frown on his inky face.

Being large, it was difficult for him to remain silent as he approached — fallen branches popped under his weight, stifled by large feet — though he tried not to alert presumably lost woman to his presence. Seeing that it wouldn't work, he gave up; clearing his throat, he gave the chance for her to adjust to the presence of another. Startling her would, naturally, do no good.

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#3
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Her lithe pixie like form was lost among the trees. Happily so. Anu sight the company of plants often, it was simply her nature and so as the ancient giants stood around her she was at ease and content. They were like old friends, statuesque figures towering to some but to the gray and silver painted fey they were guardians, worshipers of the sun just as she was. A hand touched one, the bark hard against her worn paw pads but its heart humming all the same. She was left with sugary sap, and her tasted it with her tongue and smiled.

Her ears turned, called by a sound in the distance. The tree served as her protection as blue eyes cautiously peered out into the dim light. There was a shadow, and her eyes narrowed at the sight. The sight of him, the masculine scent drifting to her now, was frightening. To another perhaps. Anu moved along, her form cautious but not still with fear. Small foot-paws took her round a tree and then another. His scent was unlike anything that she knew, and yet there was something on it that brought memories forth. Memories of love and more prominent... pain. A woman's scent.

Another would run from this strange beast, yet this thing on him didn't allow her to disappear among the wood without a sound. She came closer, though kept the towering guardians between them. Anu stood between the trees, showing herself just as he did. There was nothing threatening between them, nothing beyond his sheer intimidating size. She was silent, allowing him to simply see her as she saw him.

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#4
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Where others might have run, she stood still. Where others had feared him, she showed nothing. Memories tried to connect themselves into something memorable, but all that came was the face of his fire-haired pixie and the caverns of the pack that had once housed them. All other creatures were hidden amongst the all-consuming mist, like ghosts that had no desire to haunt his mind, things that did not desire to be remembered. Time in the New Brunswick caves, under the Tribunal, had crafted an absence of thought. An absence of memory that he wished did not exist. At least not in the moment.

"The woods can be dangerous alone." Such simple words that meant nothing. He had no desire to harm the creature, the strange obstacle in his lackadaisical way of thinking, and the warning had no bearing on the situation...but somehow, it seemed improper to say anything else. A halting gait brought him inches closer, both to her and the bark-coated sentinels she stood between. What was it about this woman that caused the communal den of Jaded Shadows to stick heavily in his mind?

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#5
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So many years, and yet they all blurred together. Why did his ruby gaze make her yearn to untangle those clouds of visions. Anu took a step closer, and then his voice rand. She couldn't help but agree. The unclaimed lands were dangerous ones. But the wars were over, weren't they? She had not herd whispers of traitors and fires and threats. Hadn't the monsters been killed, their heads mounted on spikes? Could the wood be free of stalkers and rather be filled with friends? The questions were too many, the answers too few and Anu sought to know one in particular. They can. She agreed, soft voice traveling along the gnarled fingers of branches.

Eyes like water traced over his figure, a body seemingly etched out of stone and then covered with a grizzled midnight pelt. Another step, to show her curiosity as well as get a better whiff and look. Black nose worked to uncover the scent that he bore but she could not believe what it told her. I am not afraid. She spoke once more, he was like a ghost and she could not be afraid of ghosts. Not of ghosts. She reassured in a tone beneath her breath, exhaling while a hand rested on the nearest tree. He leaned onto it, as if to gather strength from it's unmoving form. Blue orbs narrowed, as if she needed to draw his large body close to her sight. He already filled her view.

What is your name? Anu asked, a simple request not a demand. He was gray along his mouth, and she watched those silver lines for her answer. There were many memories that hid from her, locked beneath the not so distant past. She wondered if he lay there, among those years that she had worked to forget.

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#6
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Her voice only served to add more fog to the already murky memories of the past, rather than alleviating the mess that was permeating his mind. Yes, they could be dangerous, she agreed. It was curiosity, perhaps, that pulled her closer to him — he remained in his place and watched the tawny fae creature study him. What was he to her? What was he in the blue eyes of pretty wolf woman? It didn't take long for him to learn what thoughts passed through her mind. She was not afraid, of the woods or of him or of ghosts. Ghosts. He was a ghost to the aquatic gaze, ephemeral and dead and fading from the world though he knew himself to be made from flesh and blood and fur like any other man. Surprise cluttered apathy, pushing it out of the way. Ghosts. Was she a ghost to him? Was this why he could not remember her?

No, she was as much a ghost as he, taking place of physical memory that was hidden behind the sun and moon. Time was a fickle, annoying thing; why did it burn out everything that might have been good, making it impossible to see clearly? He might never have known the reason for the world to be so cruel to him, as his mind was turned back to the real at the sound of her small inquiry. Who was he, what was his name. Did he have one? "Ravesque." Yes, Ravesque was his name, he remembered. The word was so different to her own, spoken with ferocity and dripping in masculine syllables. "And who are you, beauty?"

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#7
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The silver moved, and he spoke. His voice was a deep, fitting for his figure. It radiated through the thick trees, hitting their trunks with their weight and coming to her ears without elegance. Her eyes blinked as she listened, the name bringing forth a rush of memories. He was there, was he not? The questions were many and Anu quickly calmed them and stifled all her curiosities. Rushing was not something she did, having learned patience through her years. Ravesque, it rang like bells in a tower, the high mountain peak of the Jaded pack breaking through the fog that had once placed the veil over her mind's eyes.

Not a beauty, simply Anu Sheah. She answered. She was silver, but it did not mean she glimmered. Her form was thin, frail even, and the only pleasant feature she had were her eyes. But they would soon be as foggy as her memory.

And she was no longer a Sheah, the sir name had died when she left that pack all those years ago. But it was what she had once been, in the time where these memories were reality. It simply came along with her name, though she had not expected it and it felt odd and misused on her tongue. It wasn't likely to bring him memories, for all the old woman knew she could be confused and she was not about to bring light to that weakness. Anu was not one to boast her power, but instinct told her not to show her ill points.

The another simple request came... Where are you from?

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#8
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mall-caps;">from the Binds mall-caps;">of your Lowliness

Anu Sheah was a voice from his past, but not one he could distinctly recognize. He knew it came from the Shadows, he knew it came from years before, from a time before the Tribunal and Naniko and the world underground, but he couldn't see through the fog that surrounded what stood before him now. He did know, however, that she was wrong. Where she denied a beauty, he saw a star, something frail and glistening and lovely in its own way — if he had understood what she represented, he might have tried to hold onto her. As it stood, he feared that she'd snuff out and leave him in the dark after evoking areas untouched by time.

It didn't matter who she was anymore, just that he wanted to know what was hidden in the fog. All thoughts of personal space were tossed away and he crossed the rest of the empty area between them without hesitation, gazing down upon her features with an almost desperate sense of need — a need to know, a need to remember, not just her but all that surrounded who she was. All that came were images of his fire-haired pixie, tied to him by progeny only.

Where was he from. It was a simple answer with a difficult reply. "The mountains, with my family, but I wasn't always. And yourself?" What world did she hail from, and would he know it? Should he have explained his home within the borders of the pack across the mountain, where ash now consumed all that had once been his home? Back when he had been happy, so much different than he was now. A heavy sigh escaped his chest, and a vaguely trembling hand raised as if to reach out and make sure that she was real.


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#9
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He came close to her now, and a tendril of fear wrapped itself tightly around her chest and locked her breath within her lungs. Anu didn't wish to fear, she could be brave and for all her years she should have known that he approached without any intention of harming her. And yet the tall, brutish beast caused her heart to pause in it's beat and for her breath to form a gasp in her throat. Though... when the moment passed and she was released by her instinct and left with her reason, fear subsiding without much of a flinch.

He came from the mountain. The one to the east she wondered, the one where she had ventured only once after climbing it to enter into the world that was now her home. But there was another, a shadowed peak. She was certain now, his scent no longer masked by the potent tinge of pack and free to bring memories beyond even the thickest fog. Crimson Dreams. To the west. But I wasn't always, Anu thought so clearly that she was afraid she spoke it in repetition with the black wolf's words. But, She looked up, the lines on her face fluid and soft as were her gentle features, her blue gaze catching a glimpse of the rubies he owned.I was once a Jaded Shadows wolf. It were there I called myself a Sheah. I am no longer. She corrected her previous mistake. The woman had no sir-name. Eyes grew colder, innocence and ignorance gone from them. She knew him, and she could now remember.

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