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Hotaru
Sometimes the light that guides us along our paths, is not something that we can see, but something deep inside of us.
OOC: Early Morning in the Serena Reserve
Today was the day. Hotaru had prepared herself for this day although she didn't feel like this would work at all. Hotaru had spent hours and hours in the Ethereal Eclipse, memorizing the paths and locations of prey. She worked at weaving through the trees and bushes, at gliding silently across the snow. The more she worked with her lupus form the more sure footed she became. Her senses sharpened as well, making her keen hearing and sense of smell even more accurate. Even her memory had improved. She was able to memorize routs and new locations at an astonishing speed. Now, she would put all of her hard work and skills to the test as she tried to hunt for the first time since her "accident."
When Hotaru had first become blind she had been unable to distinguish sounds and scents. Although her hearing and sense of smell were always things she heavily relied on, she had never needed to rely on them completely. Her senses were easily overwhelmed, and in many cases they still were. But now she could distinguish the different sounds and interpret their meaning. She could tell if the rustling of a bush was caused by a squirrel or it was caused by the wind. She could pick up on even the slightest hints of a trail and follow it with deadly accuracy. But none of this would matter if she couldn't catch her prey.
With a heavy heart, the blind wolf set out. Her anxiety was getting the best of her, but she needed to hunt. Fawkes was once again riding on her back, his regal form a striking contrast to the snow and grey fur. This time however, Hotaru set off in her secui form. She had practiced traveling in the form a few times, but didn't like how bulky it made her feel. It was too big and made getting around obstacles much harder. But for a hunt, the secui form was the best.
It took a while for Hotaru to find the scent of a doe. She had come across many other animal paths, but had ignored them. Her first hunt should be something easy, something simple. Unfortunately the trail turned Southwest and exited the Etheral Eclipse. The doe's path lead Hotaru to a spacious area but the ambient temperature told Hotaru she had not left the forest. What made the grey wolf pause however, was not the change of scenery but the scent of wolves. Lingering in the forest was the scent of an unknown pack, and Hotaru suspected that their territory was not far off. The blind wolf stood for a minute before heading off again, the scent on the path was strong so the doe had to be nearby. If the doe went close to the pack's boarders she would turn around. If not, then she might get lucky enough to catch it.
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The shame! Oh how the shame came down upon her thick and strong. Gemma's ears were pinned so far down she could almost use them as a scarf, how unthinkably stupid of her to leave the gate open, and even more ridiculous to enter the domain of the rams. What had she been thinking? She hadn't been thinking at all! She had to leave, now, at once! But what would she take with her? She had nothing useful really to take. Her knife and bag had been long lost, left in Anathema in the rush to escape the clutches of Giuseppe and Alaki before it was too late and they were ripped apart again. So she set off alone, with no provisions, no weapon, no coat or clothing, nothing useful to survival of any kind. Completely alone and unaided... sometimes even life itself wondered exactly how Gemma had survived as long as she had when her fits of dumb blonde thinking came along. She left her house empty, not even thinking of Matteo or Camilla only the desire to get away, and looked back at it one last time with longing before turning and heading out of the village quickly. Hopefully while the AniWayans were rounding up the sheep she could slip away unnoticed.
The woman was holding back upset tears as she jogged away from what she hoped would turn out to be her permanent home, there she had felt safe for the first time in years. She had felt protected even if she hadn't really spoken to anyone yet, there was a feel in the air, the feel of family and brother-ship. Along the fence the scurried until she reached an opening, there was no hope of her managing to climb the barbwire topped fence, not without brutally hanging herself on it that is. Once she was outside of the pack's perimeter Gemma stopped and spent a few tense, scared minutes shifting into her secui form. Her coyote genes were prominent in this form as she was a lot small than the average wolf, her ears were more elongated than in optime and her nose more like a fox's. She could most faster in this form. She began to run, entering into Serena Reserve without stopping or slowing down, her white paws swallowed the ground as harsh pants came from her maw, she was not the most athletic or healthy of people being on the thin side with only the curves at her hips and chest containing any fat, the rest of her was skinny, some would even say twig like, Matteo's attempts to bulk her up though had done her some good, at least her bones were no longer visible underneath her skin.
She could only keep up her quick pace for at the most fifteen minutes whereas a healthier larger canine could have kept going for hours and hours. Eventually she had to slow down and instead trotted along whilst trying to catch her breath back, her hides heaving wildly.
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Hotaru
Sometimes the light that guides us along our paths, is not something that we can see, but something deep inside of us.
The secui padded silently through the forest, her nose to the ground as she followed the deer's trail with surprising accuracy. Thanks to the assistance of the deer's path, Hotaru was able to move fairly quickly through the forest. Her large form gliding along the frozen ground while Fawkes sat quietly on her back. The pair of hunters traveling through the forest, making actually an odd sight to see. Unfortunately the blind wolf was unable to leave the trail, otherwise the ground they covered could have been far greater. The deer's path meandered through the forest, going to odd locations and at some points almost completely disappeared.
Early on in her expeditions to the woods, Hotaru found out that even with Fawkes as a guide she still ran into a lot of things. If the trails ever gave out
or if Hotaru had wandered off of the paths, then she would almost always run into things. It had gotten to the point that she even recognized the smell of wood when it was too close to her nose. This didn't help much when one was walking quickly through the woods and couldn't see. Nor would it help if she had to run, because in both instances the blind wolf would be traveling too fast to stop in time.
This is never going to work she thought. The grey wolf was almost ready to head home when the sounds of panting could be heard. Someone was nearby and they were breathing hard. Hotaru paused, and brought her head up to sniff the air. Whoever she had heard, she couldn't smell. So they were downwind of her, meaning they could smell her but she couldn't smell them. Great.
Red-tipped ears swiveled on her head as she tried to find out more about the approaching stranger. From the sound of it, they were a large and most likely a wolf or other canine. Hotaru entertained the possibly of a bear, she wasn't familiar with the way they walked, but she quickly dismissed the idea in favor of her original assumption. They were too close to a wolf pack for bears to be around. The grey wolf couldn't decide which idea she dreaded most: a bear, or a wolf from an unknown pack. Both were dangerous, but in very different ways.
Hotaru stood still, listening intently for the stranger while deciding what to do. Eventually, she decided to address the stranger and hope for the best. Hotaru raised her tail a little, her ears high and forward, and her head equally so. In a strong, unwavering voice she called, "Hello, who's there."
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The sound of another person's voice though had her already racing heart leaping into her chest and Gemma cowered a little where she stood. The coyote woman debated just turning and running away but her legs ached and her chest burned, she needed to rest somewhere around here, she wasn't in any condition to run from someone who might chase her thinking she was up to no good. Strings of saliva dribbled from the end of her tongue as she panted harshly. Gemma was a skinny thing and not very fit with her abusive life.
She sniffed at the air and the scent she could gather spoke of pack life and comfort. Loner's didn't smell thus, they smelt more feral and usually with a tint of desperation about them, Gemma should know she had spent her entire life in that state, with desperation and fear clinging to her like a well worn blanket. She no longer reeked so much of that although it had been only hovering about her in fading waves, with her leaving AniWaya it was now creeping back up with fresh scents taking the place of the old.
She couldn't see who it was that hd called and so called out herself blindly into the surrounding foliage,
"Hello? I'm Gemma. Who are you?"
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Hotaru
Sometimes the light that guides us along our paths, is not something that we can see, but something deep inside of us.
There wasn't an immediate response to Hotaru's inquiry. Whoever was nearby sounded like she was dying. Hotaru could hear the female clearly as she wheezed and panted, and wondered what was wrong. The voice of Gemma was distinctly canine and had a coyote tone to it. Hotaru sniffed again, trying to pick up anything in the forest. Through the scent of forest and pack the blind wolf could faintly pick up the smell of coyote and followed both the scent and sound back to it's owner. She was careful as she picked her way trough the forest, but all the while she wondered if approaching the stranger was really a smart thing to do.
At the very least Hotaru hoped that Gemma could give her information about the deer she had been tracking. It's scent trail was strong but there was still a ways to go before Hotaru got close enough to even attempt taking the thing down. As she walked through the forest Hotaru spoke in a friendly manner, "Hello, just give me a second." Finally the scent of coyote was strong enough that the grey wolf suspected she had managed to find Gemma. Judging from all the panting and the smell of coyote Hotaru guessed that she was only a yard or two away from Gemma. Fawkes had flown into a tree nearby and stared down at the thin female.
The blind wolf kept her tail down and her ears high. She wanted to look submissive, but she didn't want to give up her only connection to the outside world. With a polite nod and friendly tone, Hotaru addressed the stranger. "Hello, I'm Hotaru. It's nice to meet you Gemma. You don't sound well, is there anything I can do to help." Hotaru was being polite. She secretly hoped that Gemma would say no so that Hotaru could get back to her hunting.
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Fear, when produced in the right way was a powerful emotion and although she was already tired and extremely out of breath Gemma seriously considered making a run for it and trying to escape the social encounter that was sure to follow an introduction of names. Both the females had similar thoughts and hopes of the other leaving and neither would get their wish it seemed, politeness impelled them to be courteous and friendly with each other. Gemma should have been a raging savage from the treatment of herself by the line of men who had almost plouged each other over in their rush to conquer her body and stamp out the fire in her soul but she had managed to retain her manners and some kind of morals and startlingly as well, sometimes even childish innocence returned to her in the times when her brain didn't quite connect together in the correct way.
She was alarmed as a face was suddenly in front of her, seemingly appearing from the bushes as though a shadow from the dark. Gemma gasped and leaped back a foot or so in reaction to this stranger being so close. The white female visibly shook and her tail tucked itself up close to her belly. The colored female introduced herself as Hotaru and Gemma nodded, not even realising what the blank unseeing stare meant, that Hotaru was blind. As she sniffed though she could smell deer and wonderd with a mild horror if she had disrupted this woman's hunt,
"Oh.. Uh.. no. I'm.. ah fine, i guess. Did I ruin your hunt? I'm so sorry." The nervous tone of her voice would give away that Gemma wasn't all quite there in the mind, a sense of glazed detachment shot through her and her mind wandered off idly as she waited for a response.
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