Far from home

Neela Garcia · 12-18-2011, 11:41 AM

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Just outside Anathema borders, midnight.

Word Count → 515

Neela struggled forwards, her posture bent in an attempt to protect herself against the raging winds and hail that assailed her from all sides. The harsh weather and exhaustion generated by travelling in such conditions was doing a fine job or producing an unhealthy chill that penetrated even Neela's thick, warm fur, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep moving.

This night had started off bad and had only gotten worse. Sometime in the last few days Neela had gotten turned around and lost in the unfamiliar territory outside of her new home. Travelling for roughly twice as long as it should have taken her to get back to Ichika no Hoen had led her nowhere, and at this point her having been going in circles was one of the best case scenarios for her.

Neela had lost hope of actually making it back to Ichika any time soon when the light had taken an abrupt turn towards pitch black, and the growing hailstorm had only solidified that pessimistic expectation. Now her only goal was finding shelter enough to survive the night, and even that was seeming unlikely.

Grynn had been forced out of the sky long ago, and was now clutched protectively in Neela's arms and pressed deep into her chest fur-collar, the collie doing all the could to keep the bird warm; Grynn was much less well equipped for conditions like this than Neela.

Braving the act of raising her head for a moment Neela checked her distance to her current destination, a distant mountain range which she could just see silhouetted by the moon. Mountains meant caves and shelter, but also meant a way to find her way back to Ichika's own mountainous territory.

Just when Neela began to hope that she might actually survive this night, despair flooded through her as an unfamiliar scent flooded strongly into her nostrils, a pack scent boundary.

Neela had little to no knowledge of the local packs beyond Ichika no Hoen, which was not a good position to be in. She had no idea how this pack would react to somebody trespassing on their land, even in conditions such as this, or even if it would be safe to call a member of the pack for assistance. It also meant that she had no way of using the pack's presence to find her own way home.

With the pack boundaries cutting off her previous hope Neela tried to think of a way out. If she changed into Secui form Neela could likely survive the night herself, if only just, but doing so would mean abandoning Grynn, and even with Neela doing everything she could to keep her warm the little bird was in a bad way.

Neela's mind came up blank and with a wail of despair she slumped against a nearby tree, huddling in on herself to try and make the most of the insufficient shelter provided by its canopy, trying to ignore the stinging impact of hailstones as they seemingly went straight through the canopy to thud into her body.

Caprica D'Angelo · 12-19-2011, 11:02 AM

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WC:000+

The tall woman would never think of herself as lazy, despite her other insecurities, and the fact she often went out of her way to save herself trouble or labour. She merely thought this a strength - good, intelligent organisation, geared towards the preservation of her energy. She was expert at managing her time: hunting for her wasn't a day-long run after some massive sharp-hoofed animal, but a leisurely morning stroll around her handmade traps and snares. And she brought back as much food as anybody. In this weather, though, even that task felt like a chore. She was not domestic, living within stone walls, for the dark and twisting caves were as much of the wilderness as anywhere. But she was growing more used to the shelter and warmth than she might otherwise have been, and although her coat was sumptuous and thick, she disliked the harsh wind and needlepoint raindrops on her face and the hard icy ground beneath her paws. She'd braved this though, and been rewarded with a pair of rabbits. It was late in the day, though, and when the wind picked up to a driving barrage of hail, just as she'd reached her furthest - and emptiest - trap, the wolf stood in horror as the weather beat around her. She had the long walk home to cope with, and the stormy conditions disgusted and outraged her, although of course it did no good to get angry with the weather, it really was despicable and she had quite a few miles to cover.

Or... although here she was down near the foothills of the border, she knew of a small cave, not connected to the Caverns but still roomy enough to shelter in. It was outside the borders, but who else would be travelling on an evening like this? When she got to the cave entrance, hidden within a copse of trees, she was glad to see her flint where she'd left it, as well as some roughly leathered skins and a pile of dry sticks. It had always seemed convenient to Caprica to prepare outposts for occasions like this, or just days where she didn't really feel like walking further than she already had. And she had her rabbits. Caprica lit the fire, aiming the smoke out of the cave entrance and started to skin and clean them, humming to herself as she worked. She didn't mind a storm, if she had somewhere to wait it out. The little home-from-home was comfortable enough and she could feel an almost holiday-like atmosphere spreading through her as the little fire warmed and melted the hailstones embedded deeply in her coat.

Image courtesy of Ant Jackson@Flickr; Table by the Mentors!

Neela Garcia · 12-22-2011, 04:57 PM

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Word Count → 250

Just as Neela was about to give up the faintest whiff of smoke entered her nostrils, causing the collies drooping eyes to shoot open again as she began scanning her head around for the source of the smell. While Neela couldn't see anything that looked like a fire a second small wisp of smell entered her nostrils and gave her a direction, so the tired collie forced herself to her feet and staggered towards the smell.

Instantly the amount of hail hitting Neela doubled as she left the shelter of the trees, but the collie pressed on. Where there was smoke there was fire, and in this weather fire meant shelter. Eventually Neela could see a faint orange glow off in the distance and began to pick up her pace, approaching what she could now see was a cave as quickly as she could push her body to do. While Neela was glad for potential cover she was also wary; in her current tired condition it wasn't impossible that she might have accidentally crossed the packs scent line during her last dash and she was leery about potentially blundering in on an unknown pack wolf on their territory.

Deciding to play it safe Neela paused just outside of the cave and let out a tired howl, ending the quieter-than-she-would-have-liked sound with a short bark in-case the caves occupant hadn't heard the initial howl, and then she waited, clutching Grynn to her chest in an attempt to keep the falcon warm.

Caprica D'Angelo · 12-25-2011, 06:21 PM

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The animal fat was beginning to spit where it dripped into the fire, but over even that sound Caprica could tell there was a change in the quality of the wind's howl. It had a voice mingled into it, almost indistinguishable but not quite. She listened, unruffled, concentrating on her cooking as the sound died away and then finished with a distinctly dog-style bark. No question of it being just an extra-flamboyant gust, then. She swept back her short curtain of black hair and moved aside the rabbits, not wanting them to burn. Then she stood up and went to the entrance, part-covered with a skin that helped to keep the warmth in. Bracing herself Caprica moved it aside, squinting into the darkness filled with the chaotic weather. She couldn't see anybody, but hoped the firelight was showing them where she stood. "HEY, YO PERSON!" she bawled, hardly able to hear herself think amongst the noise of the storm. She stood helplessly, eyes searching fruitlessly. "If you looking for shelter, come on over," her voice was tailing off as she blinked around, hair gusting in and out of her eyes making the job of observation even harder. She spoke under her breath, regretting that the other had already moved on and moved past, perhaps they had lost somebody in the storm and that was who they had howled for. "got a toasty fire and roasting little rabbits and a nice hard floor for ya... guess nobody's there any more though." It was then she caught sight of the collie, a dim shape not far distant and waved in a beckoning sort of way. "Hey, over there, come on in outta this weather for goodness' sake!" She smiled encouragingly, sympathetic eyes warm and dismayed by the terrible night conditions.

Neela Garcia · 01-12-2012, 04:07 PM

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Word Count → 274

Neela's ears twitched up happily as a shout reached them from the cave and she was invited inside, an invitation which she quickly accepted, scurrying forwards swiftly as soon as the female's voice reached her ears. Neela enetered the cave gratefully, basking in the sudden warmth of the fire and collapsing on the floor near it. For a moment she ignored the stranger who had provided the shelter in favour of fussing over Grynn, rubbing the unconscious bird to try and get her dry Neela placed her near the fire to warm up, but not near enough to cause her discomfort if she woke.

With that done Neela sat back on her haunches and turned back to the stranger who had offered her the shelter. Though her worry for Grynn was evident on her face Neela tried, and half succeeded, to put a grateful smile up in its place as she dipped her head briefly to the stranger in a respectful greeting, "Thank you so much, I thought I was gonna freeze out there!" Neela crossed and rubbed her arms in an over exaggerated gesture before returning them to their previous position, outstretched with the palms facing into the fire. "The names Neela. I'm from Ichika no Hoen up north. You got any idea how to get back up there? Got a wee bit lost. I was gonna try and follow the mountains back but there was some back that’s settled there right in the way." Neela let out a quiet hum of annoyance before quieting down and turning back to the fire, greedily drinking in the warmth emenating from the bright flame.

Caprica D'Angelo · 01-13-2012, 07:17 PM

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OOC: Words: 396

Caprica fussed around the stranger in rather a motherly as she came inside the little cave, stoking up the fire to give her a boost of heat and tossing the two spare skins into a heap next to her to use as extra blankets if she wanted. Caprica hated to see anybody in even the mildest of discomfort.

"It's no problem, nice to have the company," she shrugged off the gratitude. Out here they weren't in Anathema, they were both strangers in strange lands. "Good to meetcha Neela, I'm Caprica, Anathema. I think I can direct you back up there. I went riding in the vicinity once with a guy called Saul... Stormbringer? He was one of you Ichikans, dunno if he's still there...? Yeah, you can duck around that pack if you follow our borders. Might even go with you, been meaning to go look round the area again and I gotta go north to get back to the den side of the territory anyway."

It was quite an exotic lady who had stumbled into her hideaway, she realised during her copious amounts of talking. Neela's colours were beautiful amber blended with pale cream, her fur long and her face elegantly arched: this was no wolf, or not a pure one, anyway, but a kind of dog Caprica had never seen before. It was perhaps the impact of her looks that had stopped Caprica noticing the bird at first, but now she did spy the limp feathers next to the fire and commented "Oh - is that your kill? Did you want to add it to the spit along with the rabbits? You can have one of those if you want to save that for the way back tomorrow." Inattentively, the dark wolf had failed to notice the still-living state of the hawk. She was also assuming that Neela was willing to wait for the next day before she travelled onwards, but in her mind it just made sense to overnight here and wait out the tormenting storm. Maybe if she just took it as read, she would convince the other woman not to even consider going earlier. Caprica hadn't been looking forward to a night twiddling her thumbs: she thrived best when there was someone else around to keep her company.

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Neela Garcia · 01-15-2012, 11:20 AM

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Word Count → 358

The irony of having somebody half her age fussing about her in such a motherly way was lost on Neela as the exhausted and drenched collie gratefully accepted the furs, draping one over her shoulders while the carefully wrapped the other around Grynn, leaving only the small bird's head exposed. "Thank you." she muttered gratefully, tightening the fur that she had claimed for herself around her and smiling at Caprica.

The black furred wolves next question startled Neela somewhat. Under normal circumstances the mere idea of Grynn being food would have elicited an aggressive reaction from the ref-furred collie, but sheer gratitude to her host calmed this reaction though her response was preceded by a momentary sharp glance, "No! That's Grynn, she's my companion." Neela bent down to run a gentle lick over the falcon's face. When she raised her head and continued talking her tone was more cheerful again, "If I ate Grynn I'd be pretty screwed considering how much she helps me hunting." The joke was rather macabre considering how close the two were, but Neela's sense of humour was odd some times.

Neela perked up both at the offer of some cooked rabbit to eat and at the implied permission to spend the night; going back out into the storm wasn't a pleasant prospect. Neela looked at the rabbits on the spit and took a deep sniff, savouring the smell before her hand dropped to her belt, talking as she did so "Thank you for the offer of some food though. Here, umm…" Neela's attempts to find what she was looking for in her belt weren't going well as various tools came out along with some salted fish, which she dropped by the fire even though it wasn't her original goal, until she pulled out a small hip flask.

Neela unscrewed the flasks top and took a sniff of the contents, making sure she hadn’t done something stupid like fill it with brine rather than whiskey again, before taking a small gulp and offering the flask to Caprica, letting out a low hum at the feeling of warmth following the whiskey down her throat.

Caprica D'Angelo · 01-18-2012, 07:07 PM

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OOC: Words: 221

"Oh, wow, sorry," she gasped, realising the bird was still living - and more, actually being wrapped warmly in her own fur: clearly a treasured companion. The reason for this was made clear by Neela, and Caprica gazed at her entranced. She was like Alaki with his crows - a bird trainer. The falcon was quite different to the crows close to, though, with her small head and sharply hooked beak. She had a ferocity even in her comatose state. "You can talk to her? You can tell her I think she's beautiful. When she wakes up, of course." The big-hearted D'Angelo was suffused with guilt for imagining the hawk a corpse, despite the animal's sodden and unmoving state making it an understandable assumption. Neela didn't seem to have taken it to heart, too, offering Caprica a swig from her flask, which smelled highly desirable. Caprica tasted it and her green eyes lit up, although they'd already been glowing by the firelight somewhat. "Spirits! All I have at home is wine. You are the best kind of stranger," she praised effusively, feeling the tingle in her toes from the swig already, and handed the flask back. "What are ya doin' down this way on a night like this, anyway?"

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Neela Garcia · 01-25-2012, 07:42 PM

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Ugh, REALLY sorry about the wait on this.

Word Count → 537

"No harm no foul," Neela waved Caprica's mistake off idly, literally making a lazy waving motion to accompany the words,"If Grynn were awake she might have taken offence but we'll keep that our little secret eh?" Neel tilted her head to the side in a goofy grin at this, exposing her teeth and letting her tongue drop out for a few seconds.

Neela was just about to respond to Caprica's comment about Grynn when a weak chirp sounded from by the fire. Neela's head snapped around to look at Grynn, who had opened her eyes lazily too look at Caprica. "I think you woke her up by saying that…" Neela stared at Grynn another second before she burst out laughing, long deep laughs that raised her muzzle into the air,"Typical! That's what wakes you up, vain bird." Grynn let out a huff and Neela smiled at the bird, meeting her stare for a few seconds before she relented,"Oh alright, vain falcon." This was as much as Grynn would get from the collie and Grynn seemed to realise this, making a series of clicks that Neela could translate as the equivalent of a resigned sigh.

Neela turned back to Caprica to accept her flask back. With her free hand she reached over to Grynn, extended her claws and began rubbing the claws gently up and down Grynn's spine, lip tweaking at the satisfied hum let out by the bird as she did so.

Accepting the flask back Neela took a second sip, this time smaller to conserve both the whiskey and her sobriety, "I'd say the stranger with a cave and a fire was better but hey, I've got a load of whiskey stored away, might change my mind if I ran out." Neela was finally beginning to dry out, the moisture in her fur both soaking into the fur wrapped around her and drying in the warmth of the fire. Neela removed the fur from around her shoulders, placing it by the fire to dry for later use and turned back to her hostess.

Caprica's question had hit on things that Neela hadn’t particularly want to talk about and it showed in the sudden droop of the collie's ears and the respectable swig of whiskey she took before speaking, "I was out down in the dampwoods, tryin to clear my mind," Neela let out a sigh, "Amazin how stiflin a territory as big as that can feel when you've convinced yourself that you don’t belong" That, the insecurity that had been preying on Neela's mind recently, had been the cause of this entire trip.

Neela shook her head bringing herself back into the conversation, "But yeah, anyway. I lost tracka time and well, only just joined the pack recently so I don’t know the area too well. Then the storm started and it went dark and well, everything just went to shit." Neela yawned suddenly, the warmth of the fire was starting to make her feel sleepy. Idly Neela gazed at the cooking rabbits wondering how much longer it would be till they were ready; some food would help keep her awake for a little longer.

"So, wha about you? What brings you out ere tonight?"

Caprica D'Angelo · 01-26-2012, 05:44 AM

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OOC: Words: 722

Caprica smiled her relief that the bird was awake - and that it hadn't woken up before in time to hear her misspoken comment. "Recently I learned to value that stuff even more than I already did," she offered in response to Neela's words, but the remark about the fire and the cave gave her a warm glow, glad she had helped the woman - or perhaps the warm glow was just the whiskey making its delightful presence felt. "Brewed up a barrel of wine, or possibly juice. It takes such a long time to make!" Despite reading the books about wine, she had still been astounded to find how long it needed before a spirit became potent. And you had to keep the barrel safe, dry and out of the way all that time. She would be trying, of course, as soon as she'd replenished her supply of sugary sap in the spring, but it daunted her the amount of effort she was going to have to make. Of course, Caprica could have traded or scouted for her alcohol. But she was a true craftswoman, the need to get her hands dirty in every creative process she could was ever-present: and she liked the idea of being self-sufficient, able to provide whatever she truly needed for herself. She wouldn't know for some years whether her attempts had worked, so in the meantime she would have to continue to make do with wine and the generosity of others. It wasn't such a hard thing of course, she enjoyed seeking out traders and bartering for goods, being an absolutely irrepressible hoarder with an Aladdin's Cave of a den that would sooner or later be so full there would be no room left for herself.

Her eyes showed nothing: no pity or bemusement or curiosity at the woman's words, merely a soft understanding, or what she thought was understanding. Caprica had spent months alone in a nearby forest, living like a solitary creature, a bear, perhaps, on fruit and trappings and fish and scavengings. She hadn't been trying to find herself, but lose herself, much like Neela seemed to be saying, although maybe she had meant to clear her mind in order to understand her situation, not to remove all trace of thought from it. She had never really belonged there, though. A wolf needed a pack - a healthy wolf anyway. Caprica wasn't sure where exactly was the large territory that Neela thought she hadn't belonged to. The Dampwoods or her Ichikan home? Probably the latter. Nobody belonged to the Dampwoods. They were barren of homeliness.

But she'd been asked a question, and the polite thing was to answer. "I was out checking my snares round the borders," she explained with a tone of matter-of-factness: she had much less of a compelling answer to give than the other. "Then boom. Hell on earth." She nodded at the outside world, still a horrifying cacophony of hail, thunder, rain and wind. "Didn't rate heading all the way home in this, somehow." A minute before, with a lighter tone, she might have chuckled, but instead she just turned the rabbits on their spit slowly and thoughtfully, eyes shadowed by her hair as she leant forwards just slightly. She had never been the best at contemplating topics of deep emotional significance, especially with strangers. But here they were in a cave, and they were going to have to get to know one another. It only seemed polite to show she'd been listening and wasn't completely ignoring the woman, too. Caprica was an expert at bringing small gatherings round to a lighter tone, hating to find her own shadows being touched upon, but on a night like this and with the whiskey-fire courage inside her it all seemed a little more possible. Normal rules did not quite apply. "So uh... didja manage it? Convince yourself right back that you belong again?" No: she was not a wordsmith nor a master with grammar, but that was unlikely to ever change, due to the spontaneous way the black wolf enunciated her words. At least usually her meaning was clear enough.

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