[html]  Dawn's Breath :3 Maybe..a cave-in sometime during this?
It wasn't often that she found something that really surprised her, but this territory definitely did it. Ember had never seen such a beautiful place...and she'd been more than willing to begin exploring it earlier that morning. But now that she'd gone farther in, she'd found that it wasn't quite as magestic as she had first thought. In fact, it was downright dangerous. The curious young female stopped for a moment, investigating one of the rocks that lay near the entrance to the cave system. There was a cracked eggshell there that was the same color as the sky overhead--a bright, even blue...but no bird.
She looked up over her head to the nooks in the hillside, but couldn't see any signs that animals lived there. If she had known the low speech of the creatures she would have shouted at them...but it wasn't something that anyone in either of the three packs she'd lived in had practiced. Talking to animals.
There was a war going on, apparently, but somehow Labrynth Glen had been left out of the loop. Ember knew next to nothing about it, only having heard about one fight that had happened in Shadowed Sun, so she wasn't sure what to think. Inferni was always attacking the wolves, and the wolves were always attacking Inferni. To her, it sounded like a communication problem.
Bright green eyes stared into the darkness that lay inside the dripping caves, considering. She'd gone this far, but she wouldn't be able to say that she had really explored Dawn's Breath unless she went all the way. It was around noon now...she could make it back to the pack in time to find her spot beneath the boulder. She started in, four paws splashing in the shallow water that ran beneath them.
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He never really knew how he ended up in these sorts of places. Certainly, he never intended on it, what with his decided apathy towards exploration of the "new" territories. Nevertheless, there he was, rather deep in a wayward cavern that could only remind him of other places, other times. It was as if he had been everywhere and done everything already, and any new place could only make him think of the past. Thus, they weren't really new at all and only served to rustle around the memories in his head, reminding him of various things. It was okay though. It had become a predictable cycle perhaps, but he had once again found himself in that peaceful sort of nothingness where thinking about things didn't hurt so much anymore. Time's barrier between himself and history only grew thicker by the day, and the silence of the voice in his head was starting to feel more familiar than the voice itself.
The scarred hybrid paused when he heard other footsteps in the distance, quietly splashing in the trickling water. As there was only dead air inside the cavern, he couldn't tell immediately who it was, but the lightness of the steps suggested someone younger, perhaps female. Vaguely, he hoped it wasn't anyone from Inferni, unless it was his daughter, which he considered unlikely. He waited for the owner of the footsteps to get to him though, not seeing the point in turning back or trying to avoid the inevitable. Besides, he was far enough in the cave now that turning back was probably a good idea.
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"Oh!" She stepped in a particularly deep part of the water and her foot hit mud, sinking into a hole with a few inches of mud in the bottom. It was dark in the cave, with only a little light filtered through from the entrance...she could barely make out where her foot was at. Ember tugged, trying to get herself free of the sinkhole, but her foot was stuck fast. She thought of shifting, maybe, so that she could tug at her foot with her arms...but then her legs would just get bigger, and she'd really be stuck in the hole.
"Shit...shit shit shit..." She mumbled. She was trying to keep her weight off of that leg, but it was difficult...it just kept sinking down farther and farther. It would have to stop eventually, because her whole entire body wouldn't fit in there...but for now it kept sucking her down.
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Laruku raised an eyebrow at the rather upset voice as it echoed through the cavern. His guess that the other was younger and female had indeed been correct, and he was still fairly certain that it wasn't anyone from Inferni because, well, there weren't really any packs in the area to antagonize. Quietly, he made his way through the darkness, surprising even himself by remember where all the twists and turns of the cavern were. Hello? he called out uncertainly. It seemed like it had been forever already since he'd spoken with a stranger; even in his isolation, chance meetings seemed to be rare and only those he already knew ever stumbled into him, whether intentional or not. He'd never been the most social of creatures, but still.
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"Huh? Is someone there? I'm stuck--my foot's stuck. I think...owch!" She tried to pull it out once more, and heard a cracking sound. "It's stuck real bad." She was panting now, and she leaned down to lap at the water a little. At least if she didn't get out of here she wouldn't die of thirst. But that was the only good thing about the situation. Ember could still see some light from the outside, enough to know that it was raining outside. The flow of water was increasing just a little bit at a time, making it around three inches.
She stared into the darkness apprehensively, ears up and green eyes alert. If it was a coyote, she'd struggle as hard as she could. This was like a death trap...they could go at her, and she wouldn't be able to get away. "Who...is it?"
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As Laruku aged, he only seemed to look more and more like a coyote as the ever slight wolven features slipped away. It didn't seem to matter at all that his mother had been entirely wolf. His coat was a roasted tawny, his ears were exceptionally large, and his tail was more bottle brush-like; his muzzle was narrower as well, and his frame much smaller, less bulky. But he didn't smell a damned thing like Inferni; despite the fact that the forest he occupied ran right up to the edge of coyote territory, he had thus far completely avoided going anywhere near there. He remained ignorant of their wars and blissfully so. As far as he knew, he still had children there, but as long as he didn't know the details, he could convince himself that there was nothing to worry about. They'd always been more Inferni's children than his own anyway, though he was sure that that wasn't a very good excuse for his continued negligence.
My name is Laruku, he told the girl as she came into view with glassy eyes reflecting the slight light. He was sure his own demon red eyes were bearing out of the darkness like something sinister. The ground sloped downward towards the young femme, and depth of the water was significantly different than from where he was standing. Still, if it kept raining like it was for much longer, then it was reasonable to conclude that the entire cavern would end up flooding. Here, he said, stepping cautiously forward. The ground right up against the walls had a slight upward incline, and the footing he found there seemed solid enough. Unshifted because of the rather small size of the cavern, Laruku was without hands. Still, he reached forward with one scarred up forepaw, trying to find exactly where the girl was stuck without getting stuck himself.
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She was growing bigger every day, according to her mother, but Ember couldn't tell the difference. Sure, her legs had gotten a bit longer, she'd gotten a little taller, but it happened in such a gradual way that she didn't notice it. Her adult size would be of a larger than average wolf, her father having been the same way. Shifted, he had been even bigger. She was afraid of heights, though, so it was probably best that she hadn't actually been able to fully shift yet. Even reaching the halfling form had made her dizzy and afraid.
"Ember." He didn't sound too horribly mean, but you couldn't judge people by the tone of their voice. Not their character, anyway. She hoped that she didn't sound too scared--she felt so stupid, getting her paw stuck like this. She was an adult, or nearing it, and needed to start taking care of herself better. It felt like she was always being saved by someone or another.
She risked one glance upwards and her eyes widened, ears folding back against her skull. He was certainly a sight, wasn't he. She didn't know if she'd ever seen anyone with scars like his; in the half-light she could see the ones that danced across his paws as he lifted each to step toward her, and when she looked farther up, at least one more on his face. What had happened? She was more intrigued than afraid--and his eyes, too. What an odd color. Ember shrank back a little to give him room as he neared, still unsure of his intent. It hurt too badly for her to pull it out any more, and each small movement that she made brought small sparks of pain. So no running away.
"A-ahh.." He struck gold, and she bit back a yelp. He'd only barely grazed her skin with his paw, but a streak of pain ran up her leg like lightning.
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Though the fog in his head seemed to be slowly clearing, the hybrid still had a hard time immediately remembering things that lay behind the short-term. Otherwise, he might have more quickly recognized the name offered by the girl, and he might have also been more able to recognize her by scent, considering she was yet another child of a cousin of his. Still, their present situation could very well be an excuse for his scattered mind. They needed to get out before the water rose anymore; he could figure out who she was later. For similar reasons, Laruku didn't really notice any reactions to his appearance; it was dark anyway, and most of the people he'd encountered in recent memory had no comments to make in that regard.
He did notice that she was in pain though, and tried to navigate the muddy depths more carefully. From what he could tell, her paw had slipped into a narrow crack in the ground, guided in by the slipperiness of the mud and water. The only thing to do now was pretty much to force it out; it would be painful, but it was better than sticking around. The coyotewolf sighed and stepped back from Ember. The rain seemed to be coming down harder outside. He didn't want to have to shift and shift back, and even going halfling would take time. Though she was female and far younger, they were probably rather similar in weight, which was a huge disadvantage for what he wanted to try. But he still had momentum and it was the best alternative he could think of. He didn't feel like explaining that it would probably hurt really badly. Better to get it over with.
Laruku took a few more steps back and then charged towards the femme, aiming to knock most of his weight upward against her upper arm and shoulder to pull the trapped paw from the mud.
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She could have guessed that it would come to this. It was the only way that made sense, really...her foot wasn't going to just magically pop out of the hole without any pain. That was just what she'd been hoping might happen. The water was getting a little higher, up past her ankles, and she looked anxiously toward the front of the cave. When her eyes turned back to him he was doing something else, turning away from her for a moment, then coming toward her faster.
Her foot was wrenched from the hole in a movement so quick she didn't realize what had happened for a few mometns. "I...I'm..." free. She was free! Her paw did hurt quite a bit, and she wouldn't put any weight on it until she had it looked at, but for now she was gloriously free.
She was on her side in the water, chest heaving up and down from the excitement. When she stood up water dripped down into the small creek. "I have you to thank! Thank you so, so much!" She shouted over the sound of the rain hitting the cave ceiling. "But I think we ought to get out of here before one of us gets stuck again. With my luck, I bet it'd be me"
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He shook the water away reflexively, but there was really no point, considering they were about to escape out to the rain. Maybe there were cliffs and caves on higher ground that they could hide around in until the downpour lessened, but as the rain had been falling nearly continuously for weeks, he doubted any glimpse of the sun would be long lived. The hybrid merely nodded at the girl's enthusiastic thanks, more surprised that she wasn't more vocal about the pain she was obviously in. He was grateful for it though; he wasn't a medic, and panic on her part would have likely been contagious.
C'mon then, he said simply, as he started out of the wayward cave. The water level lessened a little as they went; the floor of the cavern had apparently been lowest at the point that Ember had been trapped, and so there was really no footing trouble on the way out. Thankfully, there was an overhang directly over the entrance and so they didn't need to immediately seek out further shelter. The entrance was also at a fairly high level, so all of the water inside must have trickled in from a different source. With more light now, Laruku could finally get a better look at the girl he'd rescued, and her name finally sparked. You said your name was Ember?
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As mud splattered and soaked as she was, the girl still wore a grin. What an interesting wolf she'd found in the caves. It was strange to think that if she hadn't decided to go inside she might not have ever met him at all. At the same time, if she hadn't stepped inside she wouldn't have gotten her foot stuck in that hole, and it wouldn't be hurting so badly right now. Ember enjoyed life in Dahlia de Mai for the most part, but her sister was a little overbearing...and she didn't want to accidentally cross paths with her again. Next time she would have it planned out, and she'd get the better of Firefly...and not submit to her.
At least, that was the plan. She tried not to step so much in the water as they went toward the light at the end of the tunnel, keeping her right front foot in the air. It was harder to balance, and she nearly fell over a couple of times before regaining her footing...but she made it out without any major mishaps. Just when that thought crossed her mind her food slipped out from beneath her and she landed belly-down in the gravel, sliding to a halt next to Laruku. Raindrops fell heavily from the sky, a few hitting her outstretched paw before she managed to withdraw it and rise back to three legs. "Ah...yes sir, yes it is. And you're..Lacoocoo? I couldn't hear very well in the caves...everything kind of echoed."
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Laruku, he corrected simply, looking down at where she'd fallen, sprawled across the ground. It had been a long time since he'd seen Ember, and it was more than likely that she was gone in one sense or another. Whether she'd been killed or simply abandoned the lands was a complete mystery to him, but as Storm no longer existed, he had no where to go to look for her, even if he could be bothered. But when he thought about it, he could mostly remember what she'd looked like: jet black, just like the girl before him, but there was no way it could be the same person. The Ember he'd known would be far older now, perhaps two or even three years old. It had been a long time ago. I knew a girl named Ember once, he told the new Ember, She looked just like you.
It could hardly be a coincidence. One or both of her parents must have known the original, and as he thought about it, he sort of thought that this Ember did look familiar in a different way. But all he could smell was rock and rain, so any scent familiarity was utterly lost to him. Still, Who're your parents?
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Her father had told her about the old Ember, but she didn't know a lot about her, personally. Apparently that Ember had been like a daughter to Phoenix, so the male had given his own daughter that namesake. She didn't really mind being named after someone else; what's in a name? She and her siblings had gotten some pretty strange ones, Firefly, Kansas, and Icarus. Icarus seemed a little more normal, though. "Ember Phoenix" was a firey name for a girl with a not-so firey personality.
"Dad said something about her before, but when I asked him more he acted like he didn't want to talk about it. And he's gone." She sat down, her bushy tail coming to curl around her front paws. "The world changes in the blink of an eye. If I'd known I would never get to talk to him again...well, I would have asked him a lot more. Instead I just ran off." Ember had left to search for Firefly and Iskata a few days before the fire, and she hadn't gotten very far when she had seen the smoke on the horizon. What a horrible day that had been.
"My mom is Iskata Sadira and my dad was Phoenix, from Storm." She couldn't guess his age, or whether his parents would be alive, or she would have asked about them. She lifted her paw up so that she could look at it. It was covered in mud, so she couldn't see if there was any swelling or not. She held it out into the rain, hoping that it might wash some of the mud off.
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Laruku had had a namesake too, an entire pack. An entire pack that he had let die in the fire because he was unwilling to bring himself to rebuild it. He wondered what his mother would think, or if she even knew, what he had done to the thing she had loved most. Did ghosts ever fade away completely? Were they bound to the place they were buried? And if they were, what was she thinking now, floating over nothing but dead trees and ashes? He had never really deserved the name he'd been given, and it had been a while since he'd even offered his surname when prompted for a general title. It was ironic too, that only one of his children carried the Tears name, and as far as he knew, she lived in Inferni. Irony always left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Your mother's my cousin, he told the girl, taking a seat. The relation of "cousin" could hardly begin to describe their strange and strained relationship though, or whatever anyone wanted to call it. And he had only ever known Phoenix as the alpha of Storm or else Iskata's mate, but he supposed the much larger male had been a good enough guy. Laruku wondered what had happened to him, but wasn't sure it was entirely appropriate to ask. Social etiquette had escaped him too often in his youth, but though much older now, he still failed to grasp them. I didn't know Ember for all that long. By the sounds of it, if Phoenix didn't want to talk about it, then she's probably dead.
It was a depressing conclusion, probably, but he couldn't really feel sad about it. It had been too long, and too many other people had died. I taught her to play piano was all. It had indeed been a lifetime ago. Laruku himself had not played in more than a year, most likely.
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"You didn't like each other." Ember couldn't fault anyone for not liking Iskata; she only knew her as someone who had left during the most vital part of her growing up...and who had recently returned. She didn't know Iskata very well at all, really, and though the wolf was her mother and she would love her because of that fact, Ember couldn't stand by her all the time. It was one of the reasons that she had left to join Dahlia de Mai, to be with her cousins Mew, Haku, and Cercelee. She didn't know them, either, but they were only her cousins..and her bond with them did not require any truly long lasting loyalty.
"That's okay. I don't know how much I like her. My sister, either...if I'd have known that she was living in Dahlia de Mai, playing the role of "pack mattress", I might have become a loner, like you. That is--you are a loner, aren't you? I didn't mean to assume anything. I doubt I'd make it by myself...not a good enough hunter." Water was still trickling into the cave, but the part of the creek that was nearest to her wasn't very deep. She dipped her muddy paw into it, bringing it back up and shaking it off. It was probably better that she couldn't shift, because Naniko had told her that it wasn't a good idea to shift if you had an injury. "I think I sprained it."
"You know how to play? Pilot, my adopted brother...I think he plays violin? If that's what it's called. And you're probably right, about Ember being dead. If dad would be that upset about it, that's probably what happened. She was nice, though?"
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He offered a vague grin at the girl's assertion. He and Iskata had a rocky relationship at best, but any real resentment he had had for his cousin had long since been swept away by time and the rain. They had both gone through varying levels of hell, and it was simply too tiring to continuing harboring ill feelings for each other when there were so many other things more worthy of them. Iskata's a strange one. Incredibly frustrating to deal with, but she means well in the end, I suppose. The name Firefly sounded familiar, and he was half-sure that it was the name of one of the children that he had seen Iskata with one day by the Yawrah, or perhaps it was the name of the child that had run off. He remembered Phoenix coming by to ask, but the details didn't come back to him immediately. Either way, it seemed that Firefly was present and Phoenix was not.
I guess I'm a loner. I'm not in a pack, anyway. He shrugged. He never really thought about his status until someone brought it up. Maybe it was just because he hadn't been homeless in so long that he'd forgotten what it was like. And maybe his previous packlife had been so similar anyway that it didn't matter at all. The hybrid had not seen neither Ahren nor Jasper in weeks now either, but part of him really felt that that was for the better. Things didn't need to be more complicated. Red eyes rested briefly on the injured paw, Sorry. I'm not much of a healer. He thought of offering to walk her back to her pack when the rain stopped, but it seemed like a good long while until that would happen (and as selfish as it was, he didn't like the idea of approaching any pack, even if it was Cercelee's).
I haven't played in a long time. I might have forgotten how. Ember was nice. He looked up at her, She was actually a lot like you. Or you're like her.
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Her paw was a little cleaner, but she still couldn't really tell if anything was wrong with it. Maybe she was just making things up--it was pounding, a bit, but she had no proof that it was swollen. She'd need to see a healer. Ember had stopped smiling at some point during their exchange, but it came back when he spoke of Iskata. She answered wryly. "She was always so worried about Firefly, even after she'd found her and knew she was alive. But she left me and Icarus and Kansas...and Dad, too, without a thought, to go and look for her. But I guess she'd think we were safer here. Hah." There hadn't been any fires way out wherever Firefly had been, that was for sure.
"I was alone for a few weeks after the fire, and it was pretty strange. I talked to myself a lot. And sang. There was just too much quiet around me--I felt like I had to fill it up with something" She nodded, thinking back over those times. She really didn't like being alone for a long, long time...she could almost speak to animals, the lower sorts, but not quite. So unless she was with a pack, where she'd see someone every few days at the least, there wasn't another way to live. "I don't think this is gonna let up sooooonnn..."
Green eyes looked up to the clouds, still gray and rolling. She shivered when a raindrop hit her shoulder, backing up a few steps. She didn't like getting wet past her feet or halfway up her legs, especially not her back or shoulders. It was uncomfortable and made her feel panicked, like she was going to get sucked underneath the water. She backed up to the wall, going down onto her stomach. "Thanks. You're not so bad yourself, for a stranger. I don't usually meet wolves I've never seen once or twice already...though I'll admit that it's mostly been a pattern of family members lately. Cercelee's a lot of fun-we built sandcastles together."
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There was always something less secure about the unknown. Iskata had known where the rest of her family was and had invested faith in that was all. It was the same with all the others that had left their homes in search of family and friends, people they had believed to be lost. More often than not, these people became lost themselves, or else found somewhere better than the scarred valley that had burned down in the end. Laruku listened while the girl spoke, though he almost felt like she was giving more information than needed, or that he wasn't giving enough. Certainly Ember was more talkative than he had ever been; just as she said, she needed to fill the silence while he reveled in it. Most of the time.
Loneliness wasn't something he fought hard against. It was like the rain. It would always come and he would just deal with it. Sleep it off. Company only contributed to social pressures, obligations, ties that would become tangled and messy in the end.
He snorted softly at the mention of family, You'd have to wander pretty far to diminish your chances of meeting family. Just about every damn person here is related in one way or another, whether directly or through mateships. After all, Laruku was a stranger, but he was her mother's cousin. And his connection to her also opened up family tree lines to Inferni, where he had children, and his children had elder half-brothers, who had children. So she was related to Inferni. Iskata's adoption ties connected her with Naniko, Conri, and Twilight Vale. The hybrid did not know much about any other packs in the area, but he was sure she would be able to find at least one connection in each other pack as well. Hell, even if she wandered out of this area, with so many leaves off the tree scatterd to the wind, who knew how many others were out there?
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There were definitely times when she thought that she talked too much, when she was quiet, but there was nothing else to do now. She would stay here until the rain let up unless she found some way to cover herself...so why not talk? "You're right. I should just get used to it. I mean, it's not a bad thing." She didn't know about the little ones in Inferni, or she might have reconsidered her standing in the fight against them. All that she knew was that she wanted to continue living in Dahlia de Mai, and that living there meant that she would have to support whatever the leaders wanted.
"I'm kind of tired...I'll probably just stay here until it stops raining. If you want to stay too you can, or if you want to go. I'm sure I'll see you again sometime." She yawned. "I'll go see Naniko and ask her what to do about my paw...so don't worry about that." If he would worry, anyway.
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As far as Laruku knew, no one (still alive or around) aside from Ahren and those in Inferni knew of his misbegotten litter, and he preferred to keep it that way. All of them were more coyote than wolf and all of them had been more comfortable in Inferni than anywhere else; even Andrejez, who hated everything, had set his goal to taking it from the hands of his brother. Though Kaena had not stuck around long enough for them to be considered her children, they were all certainly children of Inferni, and he had no real place in their lives. And they were grown now anyway, approaching their first birthday as he approached his fourth. Their presence on the beach (or their assumed presence there) was one of the main reasons that he remained content to know nothing of Inferni's affairs. It was just easier not to think about how serious the war between two sides of his family was going.
The hybrid lay down and curled into a ball against one side of the cave. There's no where to go that's worth getting wet for, he told her simply. It was true enough, but he also didn't like the idea of leaving the girl alone there, even if he didn't plan on walking her home, and even if he was just going to sleep, thus not really providing any entertaining company.
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