The Candle Burns Down -AW-
#1
She awoke that morning to fog, coating the shoreline in a cape of silver-white, creeping along the coast with ghostly tendrils. The sun was not visible, though the faintest hues of its rise could be seen through the endless white. The air was thick and humid, with the faintest scent of rain-One that lingered almost all the time on the coastline.

Stretching, the young Ethiopian Wolf stood up from the sand, shaking off her dirty, rather matted fur. The wet, sticky sand held on in clumps, giving her ordinarily matted an even dirtier touch. As she, still half asleep, walked up to the shore, listening to the waves, she pondered what she would do. Should I hunt? She tapped the salty water tentatively with a paw-She tasted it yesterday, and didn't exactly find it appealing, more of appaling. It was pleasantly warm, with the slightest shill of the morning. Still, however it tempted her, she didn't dip into the water; She had no desire to get salt in her already sandy coat.

Zema turned around with a final, wistful look at the waves, began to pad back across the shoreline, wondering ackwardly what to do. Where was her brother when she needed him? Her lips curled up slightly in annoyance, before she merely sighed. Not now. She continued to walk. The Isle on which she was situated, Sea Dog, had a few old trees. Perhaps she could find something to eat among the dead branches.

Walking along the treeline, she chanced to see the furry body of a mink slide into the woods. It wasn't what she would normally eat, which was about contained to "Rodent!" A mink looked rodent-like, however, so what the heck? She slowly began to follow it, moving slow enough for the animal not to notice, but quick enough so it should not get away. Her ears flattened as she saw the animal stop, perhaps sensing her. Now or never.

Zema's eyes gleamed, and she jumped halfway into the clearing, onto the animal. The Mink, however, was faster than her, and slithered through her paws. It dashed towards the edge of the clearing, and Zema, growling with annoyance, chased after it. It was a dense move; She knew. Still, now it wasn't breakfast at stake-It was pride.

Zema jumped over fallen branches, wove through trees, and clambered (rather slowly) over rocks. She shot after the animal, all in vain, as it dashed under the roots of a tree.

Zema was furious. She dug wildly at the roots, thinking of her utter stupidity, and how annoying this scenario was. Still, it wasn't like someone was watching her. As far as she knew, she was alone on this isle-pleasingly alone. It was nice to be in solitude.

The Mink, freaking out from this destruction of its home, shot out the other side. Zema, however, was oblivious. She growled angrily, and it was quite a while, and a lot of digging, before she realized the animal was gone. At the point of which she sighed miserably, sat down, and moped, wallowing in self-pity.

"Why am I so stupid lately?" She complained, staring at the mess she had made of the tree's roots. "I can't even catch that dumb little mink!" Her lips curled up in a furious growl, and she stomped a paw on the ground. "The only thing that could make this day worse, however," She said, sounding rather smug, while staring at her sand stained coat, "Is impossible." She shut her eyes, savoring the moment. "Now, where's that Mink?" Zema wondered aloud, glancing around and sniffing to try and catch the scent.
#2
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Hiya :-).



Zalen had decided to go out for a walk last night and had not stopped until now. In the past he had been quite a night owl but ever since coming to Nova Scotia he had been primarily diurnal so his romp last night had tired him more than he had expected. He was many miles west of his little cavern in Arachnea’s Revenge and he found himself back at the sea. It was morning and foggy and he was lying in the sandy reeds near the shore taking a small nap.

As the sun began to rise causing the fog to glow a ghostly white the lone male opened his emerald eyes and looked down the coast line. In the distance he could see a small figure of a canine. His keen eyes watched as the little wolf rose and began to move about. He was safe from detection for he was downwind from her. He followed her figure until she caught chase of something and with gumption bounded into the trees lining the sand.

Deciding he best be making his presence known to her just in case they happened upon each other, he slowly stood and stretched. His body had made a soft bowl in the sand and he looked at it longing for some more shut eye but shrugged if off and went trotting towards the tree line. Just before he was about to enter the wood he heard a rustle in the underbrush. He tensed for a moment and then like a furry rocket a mink exploded out towards him. Reflexes took over before he could understand exactly what was shooting out at him and in a flash the minks head was crushed under his large clawed paw. “Oops.”


#285
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#3
Hello. ^^


Zema jumped a foot off the ground, hearing the faint noise of a voice. "No, no. I was alone. Now I'm hearing things." She denied the fact flatly. Sniffing the air, she recognized the undeniable putrid, sickly sweet scent of blood. She felt sick just thinking of what happened, most likely to the mink-There went breakfast.

Zema's thoughts turned to panic. She had more to worry about than breakfast. The animal that killed the Mink could be anything-Wolf like her, bear, bird...Hostile or not, it worried her. Zema wasn't the best fighter-She prefered to stay out of things, her loner nature kicking in. She never really saw too much of a reason in fighting-But she knew others did.

Zema sniffed the air again, shaking all over. She couldn't scent anything other than the endless, overpowering scent of blood over the wind-It was against her. So she had to move blindly in the direction of which she heard the faint noise, and smelled the blood. Whatever it was, it was just outside of the tree line. Pausing near the edge of the wood, she tried to glance through the mess of trees and see what it was-She only caught the shape of a canine.

Zema padded out cautiously, her ears pulled down and tail drooping in a fairly submissive position-This was a larger canine than her, a black wolf. He had the mink under his paw, skull crushed. Zema swallowed hard. Yeah, she didn't want to mess with this guy. Shaking, be it from the sea wind or fear was unknown, she wondered if it was too late to turn around.

Zema knew he could see her, and he would most likely overtake her quickly if hostile. The only thing she saw to do was to speak up. Gathering all of her courage, the female said, voice soft and sounding slightly Asian, "H...h....hello?" She stammered a little when speaking, and cursed herself for it-She shouldn't be showing fear. Averting her gaze to the ground, she waited silently for a response, listening to the waves crash on the shore. She turned her gaze to the ocean. The fog still hadn't quite lifted, and it was still banked in endless white.
#4
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Some advice, for bolding and italics use the [] symbols instead of the <> symbols. That should work for ya.




Zalen waited for the female to appear and assumed a non-threatening posture. As soon as her red form appeared he lifted his paw from the mink’s body and backed up a few steps.“Hello, no need to be afraid, I’m friendly.”

He looked at her, now that she was up close he could get give her a real examination. And once again he had been astounded by what he saw. Dyed fur, piercings and clothing was one thing but this was a species of wolf he had never even seen before. She was very small, almost coyote like, with red fur with white patterns. That in itself was unusual, but coupled with the black striped tail just added to her exotic nature. She obviously was not in her native land.

Zalen supposed that he should start getting used to the unusual here. It seemed as if Nova Scotia was a beacon that drew all Luperci to it. There were all kinds here, a true cornucopia of canines, and that was alright with him.

“Seems as if I caught your breakfast. He reached down and nudged the white body with his nose towards her and then licked the excess blood of his nose, “I am Zalen, what do you go by?”

Word count #209
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#5
Thanks, I'm not quite used to the coding on the site yet...

Zema wagged her tail slightly, but didn't move. He wasn't hostile, perhaps, and didn't appear to be a threat, but she didn't quite trust by appearance alone. She noted his examination, hiding a laugh. The Ethiopian's appearance often created quite a bit of shock, seeing as this was most definitely not Ethiopia. Nonetheless, she had seen many species of canines, even a few others-It wasn't that odd.

"Zema." She responded, her odd accent showing clearly. " Teanastellan, Zalen." She sat down, assuming the posture of seeming comfortable, but she was clearly still wary. Her paws seemed so close together that they nearly touched, and she seemed tense, lean, stringy muscles flexed.

The male to whom she was watching, Zalen, seemed fairly normal. A black wolf, with emeralds for eyes. The odd thing she noted about him was a red mark around his eye. She pondered that for a moment, wondering why it was there. A pack-or family?-symbol? Curious, she cocked her head, and asked, "Are you a pack wolf, or a loner?" She didn't smell all to many scents mingled with his own, so she guessed he was probably a loner, like her, but she couldn't be sure.

She glanced at the Mink, out of the corner of her eye. The bloody body of the animal lay on the shore, blood clotting the sand. She shuddered slightly, she sickly sweet scent reaching her again, before turning her brown-eyed gaze back to Zalen. She kept her eyes on the ground, but it was obvious she was watching him.

Her tail swirled around her body to rest on her paws in a dignified way, and she lifted her chin slightly to keep up the effect. She liked to look dignified-It made her a bit more confident. Before waiting for him to answer, she added another question. "You are a grey wolf, I believe?"This wasn't a true question, merely an inquiry. Nonetheless, Zema was a bit skeptical about exactly what kind of wolf he was-She had seen mainly grey. She, not being a grey, once again, couldn't be sure.

The waves crashed against the beach, and she shut her eyes for a second, just listening, before snapping them open again. The fog was slowly starting to lift-She could see a little further out, and thought she might have seen a seal frolicking in the harbor. Seal...Well, I wouldn't know. I think that's what they're called...
#6
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I am too, it’s a little complicated but you’ll get the hang of it for sure.




Zalen sat very still as she spoke and tried to look as relaxed as possible so as to ease her tension. He mirrored her move and sat as well in a very informal manner. He smiled at her accent, it was interesting, one he had never heard before. She seemed as curious about him as he was of her and he smiled when she looked at his family symbol. The paint was somewhat smudged he realized, soon he’d have to find some red dyes to reapply it.

He noted her look at the mink and wondered if he had perhaps offended her in some manner by killing it. But there was nothing he could do about it now, it was dead and if she wouldn’t eat he would. No sense in taking a creatures life without reason

She was asking lots of questions but he was more than happy to answer them, it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to be that day. He was well fed, rested, watered and his newly found den wasn’t going anywhere now that he had sufficiently marked it. He smiled softly at her,“I do not belong to any pack as of yet and I don’t plan on trying to join one. The packs of this land are well established and I tend to live more comfortably on my own. But who knows... maybe in the future I’ll change my mind.”

Zalen lifted a leg to quickly scratch behind his left ear and then readjusted in his stance, “You are correct, I am a gray wolf through and through. But you most certainly are not,” He stood and circled her, making sure not to show anything that might be construed as a threat. He did a complete 360 around her before coming back to her front. “You are quite striking, tell me Zema, what kind of canine are you and where do you come from?”


#323 Word count
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#7
Zema tried to keep an eye on him as he circled her, but found it impossible as he circled to the opposite side. She sat erect, not moving a muscle. Nonetheless, it seemed well-established he was friendly, so she relaxed a little, posture softening, eyes half-closing for a moment. She seemed to wake up again when he spoke, and she seemed to snap back to awareness. "Thank you." She said politely. "And I am Canis simensis. We are known by many names, but the most common is Ethiopian wolf."
She flicked her tail nervously at the second part of his question, and took a deep breath. "Well," She began, drawing out the l, "My kind comes from, as you may have guessed, the country that was known as by humans, Ethiopia." She smiled slightly. "I have, of course, never seen it. I have only heard from my family." Her eyes seemed to light up at the word, before calming again.

She glanced at the slightly smudged red mark around his eye again, and cocked her head, giving a look of curiosity. " May I ask what that red mark around your eye is?" She asked, her tail tapping the ground lightly, an odd habit. He didn't seem to mind her questions, and she-rather regretfully-Had to admit she wasn't an extremely social canine. Her species had never been-Groups were loose.
Another question popped into her mind. "Do you live here?" She questioned, "Or do you wander?" She knew multiple questions could be aggravating, but the female was rather curious. She was always curious about everything.

Glancing down at the sand below her, she flexed her paws in the sand, and smiled slightly as the chilling sensation ran up her paws. She noted a grey shape heave itself onto the rocks, and stared blankly at it for a moment. Seal? Her smile widened as the animal hopped, or seemed to hop, on the rocks. She turned back to Zalen, though she kept glancing back to the seal. The wolf wasn't much for water-She rarely saw the nature in it, at least in flesh and blood, so it fascinated her. She made note to write down a short description of the animal, upon finding a good piece of tree bark, then glanced at the trees nearby. Would they work?
#8
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Zalen noticed that Zema finally seemed to be relaxed and it warmed his heart. He knew he could be somewhat intimidating and was glad that he could eventually calm someone down just by being himself. Obviously his social skills were improving.“Ethiopia.”, he said quietly, repeating the unusual word to himself. It sounded like someone’s name rather than an area. He wondered how far away from here that was. His scope of the world was very small, he would have never guessed that such a place was thousands of miles away across oceans and seas.

He noticed her eyes alight as she mentioned her family, he wondered why she was alone here, but dare not ask. Feelings about his own family kept him from delving too deep into others' feelings about their relatives, he was afraid such a conversation might stir up dark feelings in him. But she had inquired then about his mark, “It is a family symbol, my mother had one as well. She told me that all members of her bloodline held the mark, though besides her and my own I have never seen another bearing it.” His voice had a twinge of sadness, his mother had been his only blood relative, he had no concept of siblings, grandparents, or even a father. Zalen’s mind wandered for a moment and it was then that he realized his right ear had subconsciously been turned towards the shore for and he turned his head to see what was making the noise. On the rocks a distance away was a fat seal, or sea lion, he couldn’t quite tell from this distance. It had been a great long time since he had seen on of those creatures.

His ear perked back to the Ethiopian she-wolf as she asked another question and he turned back to answer, “No I do not live here, my den is a day’s trek to the north east in a wooded area called Arachnea’s Revenge. I traveled this way just to explore the area, I myself have only just settled, I’ve been in Nova Scotia for about a week now.”

He watched her as she glanced towards the trees and wondered what she was thinking. She was a curious one, and gentle, but easily distracted it seemed. He smiled again, and his attention was once again drawn to the mink. Err… are you going to eat that? It would a shame to have it go to waste…”


#410 Word count
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