Set just beyond eastern Salsola borders. Forward date September 2nd?
With a moderate amount of fat, the young male had brushed his heavy locks back and away from his face. Although others might disagree, he thought it gave him a slick, clean look. The boy no doubt felt older and wiser after his journey to Freetown, and he didn’t quite feel the same anymore, especially not after what had happened at the trek back to Salsola. Pandemic wasn’t Salvia, and he had feared he would feel broken, but in fact the incident seemed to have no intentions of haunting him. There were no bad dreams, and there was no significant amount of guilt within him. It surprised him, but he was glad he wouldn’t shame his family. That was Wretch’s role.
The sky didn’t threaten to swallow him anymore.
He had crossed the fat stream that separated Salsola territory from unclaimed grounds, but it was all well and good, for his current activity wasn’t especially manly. But the young D’Angelo enjoyed pleasing his family, and with the swiftly approaching autumn, summer wouldn’t last much longer. His newest siblings were so young still, and he wanted to bring them precious gifts. In his onyx hand rested a glass jar with flowers, and in the other its lid. Slowly, he made his way through the late flower field, catching butterflies and bumblebees so that the children home could have something pretty to look at tonight after the sun had retired. It for his own pleasure too, for he admired the way they flapped their wings and the fine display of colours.
It hadn't felt like a whole month and a half had passed since she'd gotten her cast on, but Saul had said that it was time to get it taken off. After she had, she'd been very surprised - her legs had become weakened from the weeks that she'd spent in her wheel chair, moreso than she had expected. The girl had immediately shifted down into her lupus form and had been able to do so without pain, which was a good thing. She really was on the road to being fully mended! Wretch had thought that being in her lupus form would be better for the time in which she would need to gain strength in her legs - this way, she could support her weight on four legs instead of two. Once she got this down better, she could shift back again.
A few days after the removal of her cast, she'd decided to take a trip out of the packlands once more. The last time that she had dared to venture beyond the borders she had been attacked by Salvia...and she wished to do some investigating of her own. She hoped to begin looking for the place that the canine had come from and to speak to someone from there. Her incident with Pandemic had been odd, then Salvia's attack...she didn't understand those canine's weird animosity toward her. As far as she knew, she'd done nothing wrong. And by the time that she had realized that Pandemic was someone who had known her from before, he had disappeared.
Just her luck. The girl padded slowly away from Ichika, prepared for a day's journey to the West. This would be a real trial for her leg; she planned to travel as far as she could as quickly as she could, which would surely test it. Wretch started out in the early morning, a bag filled with food and supplies over her back. She stopped several times during the day to rest and slept overnight between the two territories in the large, hollow trunk of a dead tree. Now she was starting fresh again, beginning her slow journey toward the coast. She'd see if there were any groups near Ichika before heading around and to the South. Today, she hoped to get a few answers.
Colourless eyes squinted at the jar, watching fragile, flapping wings painted with creative colours and markings. The sickly one would appreciate it for certain. It was a shame the elegant insects were to fly away on rapid wings if the lid was removed on the top of the transparent beholder. How lovely it would have been to fill the family’s room with fluttery wings. His mind-set was quite romantic compared to the general attitude found within the thistle kingdom, but Pandemic was himself and no one else. In a world set by hard rules and cruelty, he didn’t believe it could hurt with some compassionate traits.
Time wasn’t quite ripe to return back beyond the fat river, so he settled amongst the flowers and closed platinum eyes, enjoying the compassionate sunlight. The sun wasn’t quite as unbearable while dusk approached. He couldn’t remember the fall with its colour explosion, but knew he was looking forward to the change. Much had happened the last months, and he was generally happy to turn his back to summer and embrace cooler times. The jar remained in his lap, and he fought off an urge to shake it, just to see what would happen with the poor creatures caught within. A young soul’s curiosity could be cruel at times, but this boy’s size had caused unfortunate accidents in the past when he had been younger and followed impulse, and thus had worked to learn to control them when they occurred.
It had taken her quite a while to get to where she now stood. The female had just spotted the other creature, a dark shape amongst a field of flowers, and she paused in her movements to observe his. Was this the same male that she had come across in the past, the one who had seemed to know her? He hadn't been too happy with her and then she had been attacked - was this a sign that they didn't want her to come around? Wretch was happy where she was, living in Ichika and not leaving it for anything other than an emergency or to obtain need-to-know information. She had to know more about her past, about what events could have led up to Saul finding her on the beach that day and taking her home to Dahlia de Mai. She'd had a home before...and a family? Who were they?
She cleared her throat before speaking, not wanting to scare the other canine but wanting to alert him of her presence. "Pan?" She used the name that her sibling had given her in the past, unsure if it was actually him or if it was another who simply looked similar. She took a few steps closer, a hopeful look on her face. "I came to ask you some questions. I...just please don't chase me away. Sal came to Ichika...I'm sure it was her. I remember her a little bit, and she smelled really similar. But she attacked me. Do you know why she would have done that? I..I can leave if you don't want to talk. Just please don't hurt me."
Liquid silver hues hunted for fragile wings splashed with summery shades of life. The short lived insects were treated as a part of the season’s charm, but as the young male thought about it, he felt rather blue. Papery wings buzzed with their ignorance, but they would very soon drop to the ground along with the leaves of the withering trees.
With the breeze’s continuous rippling through the rich field of flower, the dark pelted D’Angelo canine’s eyes failed to see the approach of the girl that shared the appearance of Tak’s nemesis. Perhaps he failed because it would have been inane to expect the forlorn child of Larkspur and Eris to draw so close up to the Salsolan borders. None would be wise to walk near the malevolent pack’s territory. This was the first thought that entered his head once grey eyes were attracted to the pale female moving through floral seas.
Her appearance alone made the world less right. Out of sight was out of mind and he had been able to live with that.
Silver shades turned solid as he turned away, muscles in his jaws visibly tightening under soft pelt so black it leaned towards blue. But wolfish ears flickered slightly to listen to the gush of words, sudden and relentless as the blood leaping out through a severed throat. As the white sound filled in after the end of her word-vomit, he felt only anger and reluctance for this creature. How he wished she wasn’t related to him by blood. She had spat at him when he had seen her last, and now she had come here to ruin his day and demand the truth that she had thrown into his face.
”You told me to leave you alone,” a cold voice draped with refreshed hurt muttered. Black fingers tightened around the jar in his lap. His knees drew up and he seemed to hover over the object he held—more or less hiding it from her view. She didn’t deserve anything. Salvia had gone and attacked their lost sibling. Should he feel love or hate for such harsh action? Uncertain.
