shadows

Gabriel de le Poer · 09-01-2011, 03:47 PM

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+3 Private. August 17th sound good?

Sometimes, and often at dusk, Gabriel came to the mountain that had sought to claim his life. He did not fear it (in truth, he feared very little these days) but respected the earth and its might. That above all had been proven to Gabriel, who had seen the raw power of earth, fire and water. They had not yet suffered a flood here, but Gabriel had been caught in one while he lived in Scintilla. It had nearly drowned him, but Eli had been there and the coyote knew the land far better than his wolfish counterpart. Eli had saved his life then, and Gabriel had never forgotten that.

He should have saved Marlowe, but how could he have done such a thing? The bird had wings—he had been within seconds of his freedom when the rocks had come. Gabriel did not recall much from that day. Sitting at the base of cracked rocks and raw earth, he could smell the landscape for what it was. Calling this place a wasteland was a lie; those who had named it had done so to keep strangers away. Certainly, the rocks were mighty and present, but the valley was rich. If he had allowed them to herd, as once suggested, the animals would flourish.

Yet Gabriel was stubborn and Gabriel could not let the old ways die. He would have lived happily as a wolf alone, negating the knowledge of books and words and hands for a simple time. Growing lazy and fat off livestock would destroy them. Inferni was made to fight; the strong always were. A deep sigh escaped him as a shadow passed overhead. Ibsen, no doubt, going to scout or whatever it was his son often had the bird do. Like his father, Gabriel reflected sadly. He missed Marlowe terribly. Perhaps that was why he had come here.

Cypress · 09-07-2011, 12:49 PM

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17th works for me, it what I was shooting for! Sorry for the wait.

The hour glass was running empty and soon Cypress was expected to leave the Inferni lands. He would not openly admit it, but he was already quite homesick. He missed Crimson Dreams and the familiar faces of his pack mates. He couldn't wait to tell Artemis about his venture. Even if nothing had been as he had expected or hoped it would be. Still he had gained some perspective, on the world beyond the borders of home and of himself. With any luck he would come home to find everything as it should be. His mother would be back home where she belonged and their lands would be bathed in the peace he had known growing up. He did not want to return to a war and he dared not even think such negative thoughts.

He would leave in the morning with the coming of the dawn and so his last day in the home of his father was drawing to a close. Not wanting to be a nuisance and out from underfoot he had spent much of his visit at a respectable distance despite his eagerness to know his father. For the most part he had stuck close to the small house behind the mansion that was his fathers home. It was not as if he had received the warmest of welcomes in the first place and he had not wanted to lose whatever grace he did have by being overeager and overbearing. But time was running out.

Gabriel was not to be found in his room of the guest house. Discouraged Cypress refused to give up his search there even though he had hardly a clue of where else he might look. His tracking skills were mediocre and with multitude of scents that lingered around the mansion and its grounds it took sometime with his nose to the ground and practically walking circles in front of the house before he was able to distinguish the fresher scent trail of his father from those fading with their age. He followed it, letting it take him deeper into the territory that he had otherwise ventured on his own. He was nervous. Nervous to be found by yet another that would despise that his presence, or even his very existence. But it was only Gabriel that he found.Father? He called out softly, having stopped several yards short of the other. He still did not want to impose his presence on the other. He only sought as much as what would be freely given.

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Gabriel de le Poer · 09-08-2011, 03:41 PM

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Excellent. :> Btw, I suck and we should have a Zeke/Cypress thread after the war wraps up.

In some ways, he was disappointed that Cypress was the sum of his home. Crimson Dreams had produced a boy who lacked the savagery that kept his elder siblings alive. Ezekiel was more wilderness than he was man, and Talitha was far more dangerous than her hostile behavior let on. Yet this was why he had been pleased by their ruling. Halo was mad, unpredictable. She had been like that for far too long, Gabriel had come to realize, and in many ways he regretted giving her his right hand. It had fueled an ego that needed discipline.

He heard the boy’s approach long before his voice came, and did not start at the sound. A dark head turned to face this odd reflection of himself, one that was more his mother than anything else. At least Anu had gotten what she desired—she had sons. She was immortal. “Cypress,” he greeted, though his body did not show any signs of welcome. It rarely did. “Did you find Inferni what you expected?” Gabriel asked, his tone even, less like a father and more like a teacher. He had known what his son would find here. The fact that even Ezekiel had avoided the boy proved this.

Cypress · 09-14-2011, 04:31 PM

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sounds good!

A small smile split his maw as Gabriel's head turned to face him and spoke his name. Dark tail giving a couple gentle wags in kind. It was enough for the boy to close the distance, but not enough for him to close it completely as he came within a few feet of the other male before planting his rear on the ground as he considered the question. Ever since he had first met his sire, Cypress had wandered what Inferni might be like and how different life could have been had he been raised here. Had he been his father's son. He had thought for a time that that was what he had been meant to be. He knew better now and that role seemed amply filled.

Cypress had known even before he had arrived at the borders of coyote clan that it would not live up to his childish expectations. Though he had longed to hold on to the fantasy. He had hoped for better. "It is not what I had thought it might be, after you came to visit us, but it is what I was told I would find." And worse. He never wished to cross paths with Halo again. Anu had warned him, but he had needed to know that for himself. "I have not always felt like I belonged in Crimson Dreams." It was the first time the thought had been given voice and he did not know why it was Gabriel he had decided to cofide in. Though he was not brave enough to put words to the fact that he had once thought this might have been the home he had longed for. He had been so wrong. "But I do not belong here. I understand that."

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Gabriel de le Poer · 09-16-2011, 11:19 PM

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+3

There was a reason that his other sons had never crossed into this world, and Gabriel could tell from the weary expression of the chocolate boy that he had learned quickly. Inferni was not made for wolves. Inferni was made for war, for the madmen, for the savage—not for those who slept in beds and knew nothing of war or what it was to feel loss. Cypress had come to him during such a period, and Gabriel believed that he would return to it wiser. Perhaps he would understand now what it meant to be a warrior and recognize the weight of battle.

The fact Anu had warned him was enough. He was young; he was immature in ways that his other children had once been. Talitha had her childhood ignorance ripped away; Ezekiel had lost his own, bit by bit, in whatever dark corners of the world he traversed. Gabriel recognized the need for change, and assumed that the boy had imagined his father would give him safety. Not in Inferni; not from Gabriel, who was a failure in this idea. He was a father in the way of wild things, not in the humanized notion so many carried.

“No, wolves do not belong here,” he admitted. “My father did not belong here either. Inferni is made for coyotes—we were made to know hate, and that is what makes us strong.” Pride, even now. Pride even after all things that had come to pass. “You will find other strength. Coming here showed you what it feels like to be an outsider; you should never forget that.” A stern gaze, one suggesting he did not wish his son to turn against coyotes even after all he had seen. “If your mother’s home is not the one you desire, then try elsewhere. I left Inferni twice before myself,” the graying male admitted.

Cypress · 09-23-2011, 01:32 PM

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sorry for the rambly ramble and the lateness...stressing over my broken finger has created a large lack in muse.

That was what everyone said. Inferni was not a place for wolves and so long as the lands were filled with those of like mind with Talitha and Halo it would remain true. Even now Cypress did not understand their view. The only difference he saw between himself and the red-eyed women that had made his visit less than pleasant is that they clung to their preconceptions of breed while Cypress had none. Did he not share their blood? At least in part. He doubted any of them were of pure blood if his father was not and if that was true than they were even less different than they claimed. In his mind it was nothing but fool’s pride. ”If you ask me the differences are only in their minds. I do not see such differences in wolf and coyote. Especially when so many of us come from mixed lines anyway.” It was true of himself and of his father obviously, so who knew how many more it was true for.

But then, maybe Cypress did understand. Was the way in which he had been treated by Halo and Talitha not all that different from how he had treated his own brother? He had perhaps never gone as far as to steal a kill from Alder, but he had certainly been harsh and judgemental of the masked boy. If not almost cruel with his words and was that not what made him less than Anu’s son? Perhaps that was why his eldest brother had left.. Because of him. It was then that Cypress noticed the stern look of his father and wondered if perhaps that older male knew his thoughts and was as equally as disappointed him as his mother would be. Had he made his brother feel like an outsider like those of Inferni had made him feel?

Cypress was surprised by the fact that his father had left his pack previously on more than one occasion. ”Yet you returned.” Surely that meant something. ”For now Crimson Dreams will continue to be my home.” He paused for a moment and the rest of the words came reluctantly. ”I..I just worry that I am a disappointment to my mother. There is an anger in me that I have not seen in my brother’s or in her.” He would never forget the look in his mother’s eyes on the day she had watched him shatter the pot in his fit of rage. ”I came here because I am more than just her son. Still I am more her son than yours I suppose and I accept that. I just needed to know you for myself and not just from the words that mother had given. I guess I hoped in knowing you I would better understand myself.” He was not yet sure if he had truly gained the insight he sought.

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Gabriel de le Poer · 10-02-2011, 01:09 PM

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Cypress was right, to a point. The Inferni coyotes were hardly coyotes themselves; yet they were ostracized and experienced hate because of what they resembled. Even he had been labeled as something “less” than a wolf. This was why Gabriel refused to call himself such, though he knew it was true. Like Eris, he was only a coyote in faint and forgotten ways—his combat style, his sharp profile. Dog, he had been called. Never coyote. Wolf he rejected with the hatred of a man who knew the cruelty of others. How could he not, when Baneesh had died, screaming, before his eyes?

Gabriel listened to his son, recognizing that he had given the boy his color and his size. Anu had shaped them though—Anu had made him look like her with those blue eyes and the soft demeanor. He would never be able to resemble Gabriel beyond his body; though he carried demons of rage and wrath. “I returned because Inferni is my blood. I have bled for Inferni, and I have killed for it. You must be prepared to make such sacrifices for whatever you call home. If your pack is truly at war, you must not run from it—nor can you run from your anger. Harness it. Use it. Ezekiel is much like you in that respect,” Gabriel added.

“You need to realize, Cypress,” the older male went on. “That while I am your father, Anu did not want this life for you. She wanted you to live without knowing the turmoil we face in the north. Battle and war changes people; it makes them wicked. I believe your mother wanted you to know the Sun’s warmth, and not its cruelty.”

Cypress · 10-11-2011, 04:02 PM

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I am not sure about this post

It was startling realization for Cypress when Gabriel spoke of how he had killed for Inferni. A truth Anu had protected her sons from, for she had never told them of the darker aspects of their sire. She had only ever given them what they had needed to know. Yet his father stated it so matter-of-fact-ly as if it were nothing and as Cyp considered the words a moment longer he understood what it was that his father was truly saying. He had killed to protect to his home. He had done what was necessary and Cypress should be ready to do the same for his own home, wherever that may end up being for him. His father was not making light of it, simply trying to express to his son that for a place to truly be home you must be willing to sacrifice for it. He gave a heavy, solemn nod. Feeling once again that he shamed not only his mother, but his father as well with his cowardice.

Despite his father’s words, Cypress was uncertain of similarities could be found between and his elder half-brother. And then there was Talitha with her venomous words, but the way in which she had treated him was not really all that different from how he treated Alder. A connection he would be reluctant to make if he ever did. The truth in his father’s words was undeniable though as he spoke of Anu and what she wished for her sons and he couldn’t have been more right. ”She said that is why you stay away.” He had grown up from the beginning without Gabriel’s presence and so he had never known what he was missing. Anu had enough love for her sons and she had told Cypress that it had been her choice.

”Do you think I will see you again?” He asked with a hopeful tone. ”Once I leave here.”

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