words without a rhyme

[Ehno Marino]

[html]<style type="text/css">
.fracture b {font-weight:bold; color:#fef47e; letter-spacing:1px; }
.ooc { font-style:italic; padding:0px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif; font-size:10px;}
.fracture p {text-indent:25px;padding:5px 10px;margin:0px;}
.fracture {width:400px;border:1px solid #c3702e;background-image:url(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/K ... cture1.png);background-position:top center;background-repeat:no-repeat;padding-top:275px;background-color:#432e1e;text-align:justify;margin:10px;font-family:"Trebuchet MS", tahoma, sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:12px;color:#c3702e;}
</style>

Derpy starting post. x: Set in Cottontail Valley. wc:310

Ehno had spent another night on endless patrol. He was too on edge for sleep after the latest silent attack upon the Dreamer family. The darkness would come and when he closed his eyes, suddenly every little sound could be a potential enemy. The time was better spent making slow circuits around the border, he felt. His guard was high as he walked, every sense on alert, yet it somehow calmed his nerves. It felt better for the Marino to be doing something with the pent up energy that worry and anger had afforded him. Sitting idle was not something the fiercely protective man could handle for very long. If patrolling the borders and searching for any foreign presence or scent for hours on end could ease some of the tension he felt, then he would take it without complaint.

The night had been devoid of threats, however, and the thought brought the male some small bit of relief. The sun was beginning to rise and signal a new day. Ehno took it as a sign that he should put an end to his vigilant tour for the time being. He’d been at it long enough and the last thing he needed was to wear himself down into exhaustion. The Marino finished his last sweep of the northern border before turning south and marching deeper into the territory. Within no time he found himself passing through the spacious valley north of the manor. The male slowed his pace, amber gaze searching about the valley clearing. It was quiet here. Peaceful. He could rest here for the time being. He settled himself down in the grass near a smattering of deep blue wildflowers. He stretched out and watched the sun slip higher into the sky. His body thanked him for the break, but his mind still seemed too wired to sleep.

[/html]

[Artemis Marino]

[html]

Sorry for the wait, bro, I suck. D:

The silver-painted girl was not an early riser by nature, but she had not been lucky enough to have good dreams the night before, so she was thankful to escape the Manor as the sun began its ascent into the sky. Artemis avoided going out at night, as too much had already happened to her in life that she did not want to put herself at risk right now. If the war wasn't going on, the situation would have been different, but her mother and father did not need more to worry about, and she tried not to cause more.

There was another reason, one she held deep within her mind, that caused her to stay inside where it was safe at night. Artemis remembered painfully the worry she had felt when Cypress had been gone, even if she could not explain why it scared her so much. If something happened to her, she hoped he would be just as worried, but she did not want to give him reason to be.

Stepping among the blue flowers that matched the colors of the scarf she wore, Artemis spotted the large earthen-hued creature stretched out in the flowers and laughed softly to herself. "Ciao, Zio," she called out to him.

[Ehno Marino]

[html]

No worries, luff.

For a time, Ehno almost felt as if he would be lucky enough to drift into a peaceful slumber. Sleep was a refuge from the harsh hand that fate had seen fit to deal the Dreamers, though not one he could seem to seek shelter in this morning. So instead he tried to let his thoughts drift along with the cool autumn breeze that snaked through the air around him. The days were beginning to get cooler. In no time at all winter would be upon them, bringing along its freezing temperatures and snowstorms. He could only hope they would be able to find peace before then.

A sudden call drove him from his thoughts, a greeting in the tongue of the Marino family. Amber eyes searched about and spotted Artemis walking among the flowers. The sight of the girl brought a smile to his lips. He sat up, waving for the girl to come and join him. “Missa, cara mia,” he called in return. He idly brushed his bangs away from his eyes. “Come to enjoy the sunrise as well?” A lighthearted joke to conceal the torrent of emotions that had been keeping him awake all this time. It had felt like quite a while since he had last spent time with his gray-furred niece. The uncle wondered how the girl had been holding up during these troubling times. Everyone seemed to have their own way of dealing with it.

[/html]

[Artemis Marino]

[html]

<3

Though she did not want to admit that it was getting colder, Artemis knew winter would be on its way soon enough. It would be her second winter, though if she wanted to get technical, it would be her first full winter. Hopefully, anyway. Artemis did not want to have anything happen to make her be unable to see the snow as it fell, preferably not as heavily as last year. The girl was finally looking stronger, now. It had taken many months, but she was finally putting on weight and toning muscle again, no longer looking like a skeleton. Perhaps that was due to growing up, or coming to terms with her accident, or her friendship with Cypress. Or perhaps it was all three.

At the warm greeting, the silver-painted Princess walked to her uncle's side and sat with him. "Yeah, it's not something I do often, so I figured I would, since I was up," she answered, though it wasn't entirely the truth. She did not want to tell her uncle about the dreams she'd had about falling from a great height, bring ripped away from the world of the living completely this time. Her fear of heights was not something she shared, it was not something she had ever vocalized. "Why are you up so early?"

[Ehno Marino]

[html]

Sorry this post is weird.

It was interesting how peaceful everything around them could seem, despite the struggles that the Dreamers were facing these days. The lands may have been war-torn, but what did the sun care about that? The sky? The plants and the animals all around them? No, this was something that affected the members of the packs alone. Part of him wanted to be bitter that the rest of the world could go on peacefully while they had to deal with constant strife. But on the other hand, it gave him moments like this, where he cold sit and unwind for a little while. Right now, it was just the two of them and the sunrise. He could take a moment to forget all about the struggles. And he had to, or else it just might be the death of him.

He nodded as he listened to her explanation, then considered her question for a short, silent moment. “Ah, I’m not much for sleep, these days,” he admitted, shrugging his shoulders lightly. An understatement, to be sure, but he was no sure that the fighting was something he wanted to dwell on so much at the moment. “I was just keeping an eye on the borders, thought I would take a break and watch the sun come up.” Amber eyes briefly glanced toward the horizon, watching as the warm colors spread farther into the sky. “Che bella. It is not something I often get to see either.” Sunsets were more his thing, the moments when the world began to darken but still remained so lively.

[/html]

[Artemis Marino]

[html]

I didn't think it was weird. c:

The girl studied the rising sun with interest as she listened to what her uncle was saying, though she found it difficult to focus on the words themselves. Each passing day seemed to blur together for her now, but she had found her niche in the pack, even if it was not a particularly useful one. Artemis did not seem to do anything but sit by the side of the lake and watch its ripples. It was all she had done since she had woken from her prolonged slumber the winter prior. Maybe someday she would find something she was good at and be happy to do it every day; for now, that meant sitting by the lake. Sometimes she had company, but most days she was alone and that suited her fine.

"Do you think we have a lot to worry about?" she asked him, frowning slightly. Her sister was still gone, and her brother, too. The silver-painted girl had not been unaware of their absence; she had merely not given it much thought. This entire war had been something she avoided like the plague that it was. Liliana had talked to her a bit of it, but they had moved on from the subject quickly. It had been visibly painful for the Utina woman to discuss and Artemis was attempting to pretend it didn't exist.

[Ehno Marino]

[html]

<3

Unlike his silver-painted niece, Ehno was not so easily able to banish the thought of the war from his mind. Protective instincts cultivated since he had been a child back in Italy made it difficult for him to simply ignore the sleights AniWaya had dealt them in recent weeks. Anu had returned to them, but relief could not stand long in his mind, for just as quickly Cambria had been snatched up. Keeping an eye on the borders for hours on end was the only way to deal with his wildly worried and frustrated thoughts. At least if he did that, he knew he would be less likely to rush off to the antagonizing pack for a solo—and likely suicidal—rescue mission.

He shrugged slightly at the girl’s question, running a hand through his hair as he considered it. Ehno had certainly been plagued with plenty of worry as of late. But he didn’t want to seem so hopeless about the situation. He may as well give up, if he did, and the Marino man was not one to back down so easily in difficult situations. A light sigh escaped his lips, and he turned his gaze from the sunny horizon to Artemis. “If things go on for much longer, I think we might.” He didn’t know how much patience their AniWayan aggressors would have for them. Who was to say when they might decide that their hostage-taking tactics were doing them no good and switch to something less kind. More permanent. “We’ll fix things,” he said after a moment. “I know we will.” Words spoken for his own sake as well the silver-furred girl’s.

[/html]

[Artemis Marino]

[html]

weird post is weird.

The war had thrown everything in Crimson Dreams off more than the snowstorm had, or even her fall from the roof last winter. This pack was all the young Marino knew; she had never lived anywhere else. For things to be so dramatically different now, she found herself unsure of what to do and it was easier to ignore it than to face and accept it. What if something terrible happened and the pack was unable to move past it? She did not know what her family would do, and she certainly did not know what she would do. It would be purely disastrous if that happened.

What if the pack survived, but her family didn't? What if someone in her family died? Artemis could not handle the thought of such a tragedy, so instead she said, "This pack is all I know. I've never been anywhere else," though of course her uncle would know that. "What if something bad happens and the Dreamers don't... stay together?" She wrinkled her nose, clearly upset by this idea. Her gaze met her uncle's as she waited, hoping that he would quell these worries without problem. He would know if they would make it, she hoped. Her uncle could ease her mind... Right?