Oh pitty me poor fools
#1
((Saul and Maybe Nayru will be making an entrance later on))


Two days ago he had been able to shift to two legs, and two days ago whatever It was that had taken over his body had gotten astronomically worse. The cold that had been nagging him had kicked into high gear that night, robbing him of even the most innocent actions, unable to move, eat or do much other than wallow alone. Not much had changed, in the mornings he’d wake and hope for a brief moment that he wouldn’t be greeted with a headache, hacking cough or a fever. But today had been no different; he’d woken up quickly coughed for five minutes and reclined back against the den wall, trying to ease the burden.

He’d moved to the other den, the one that used to be his, if it had only been for a short time before he had moved in with X’y. What he really wanted was X’y, she had left that morning and he wished she was with him right now, when he needed her comfort. The behemoth would only crawl out rarely to take care of things that were better left unsaid. Each time he’d come shivering back into the den, crawling right into the blankets, furs and anything else he could find to keep him warm.

It was just one of those times, having recently left and returned, where he was curled up against the side of the cave, blankets and furs curled up tightly around him, shivering. This was pure hell for him, completely weak and unable to do a damn thing, and dependent others. The meal X’y had brought that morning sat untouched in the opposite corner, his appetite having diminished to nothing. He wanted X’y then, selfishly he wanted her, but he was denied her just as she was denied him, because the balance of those who did for others and those who took was way too out of proportion.
#2
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Monotony became this woman’s reality, comprised of the tedious chores coupled with pack stability. The routine that was once taken with vigor was not drawled through with apparent reluctance and fatigue. Each hour that past, each day, was just another of dying slowly, working away to the bitter bone til there was naught but marrow and pain. The cold seeped through her steps and further weighed her down, trudging the beast along the marked terrain with rigid steps, her limbs rattling with cold. She was a creature built to withstand the cold, but not without some kind of rekindling to her internal flame.

Time spent in the outdoors had weathered down her radiant fire to a smolder barely able to keep her warm throughout her duties. Its heat only minutely coursed from heart to veins before the cold stole it away in an instant. She had grown tired, pushing herself beyond what her reserves would allow and then what energy she could muster was used to the hunt, leaving her even more exhausted thereafter. Instead of the more impressive kills, she made due with small winter hares when the circumstances permitted it. After the initial morning takedown through the harem, the prey ventured further away from the rare winter greens for safer grounds, and the female could not be bothered to follow their trail. She was simply too tired… too worn away.

With the subtle wane of the afternoon light, the Nomad finally set her course for home nestled in the mountains. With Saluce’s sickness, they could not afford to keep their prior den without the risk of the sickness spreading. Ichika’s numbers as a whole had already dwindled to a few able bodies. Last burden that need to befall them was the compromised health of the nurturing pair of Nayru and Saul. She had left Sarian in their care for the morning, not at all regretting her decision to leave the child behind. As must as she cared for the girl, in the end she was not of her blood; a new concept that was growing more defined in the woman’s mind with each passing day. To appease her culture, she saw no qualm in following the examples laid down by her forebears and Shepard; let the young be raised by the family- the pack.

Coming to the warm maw of the den, she announced herself with a soft ‘woof’, two hares and a sprig of herbs in her possession. No doubt her mate was smothered in furs, attempting to hide his weakness with poor avail. Within the darkness she spied a mound of trembling furs and sighed softly at its pathetic display. Her limbs at last gave way, and the towering figure collapsed beside the pile of furs. Her nose cringed at the stench of sickness and stale meat. “I have told you before,” she sighed softly, placing a hand atop the rise of furs. “You need to eat to regain your strength. Letting it sit is just a waste of a hunt…” And a waste of her precious energy.

ooc: 512 words.

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#3
What he needed was her warmth and tender touch, what he didn’t want to hear was her scolding and motherly tone. If he wasn’t hungry or if he’d just puke it up then there was no reason to consume food that would just make him more ill. He just ignored the remarks, his shaking form hoping she’d just go ahead and curl up next to him. Saluce had dropped all the bravado he usually kept, or any semblance of hiding just how bad off he was, he didn’t have the energy.


“You need to regain yours and stop doing everything for Nayru and Saul,” he said rather smugly. Saul was back he could handle the task of taking care of Nayru until she was healthy again. There was no need for the two of them to do this to themselves anymore. He coughed, hacking up some terrible phlegm. Saluce rolled his body a bit and then untangled himself from the pile of blankets. For the first time his eyes looked upon her, the pressure in his head making it difficult to form much thought at all. But he was quickly growing more agitated when he noticed the same exhausted look he might have had. This sudden realization didn’t sit with him long, anger already starting to boil in him.

An arm slowly snaked it’s way outward before hooking her around her waist, what strength he did have was used then, pulling her right to him. “I don’t want anything to eat, it just makes me sick right now. I just want you” he said quietly hoping she got the point.
#4
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What was supposed to have been her mate had been reduced to a wallowing pile of day fur and musk. The sickness had been left to incubate while he rested under the furs, no doubt inhaling the remnants of his expelled illness in a repetitive cycle of disease. Had he been a pup, she would have scolded him for his poor judgment in combating his cold. But as he was portraying himself as such a weak thing, she perhaps could have gotten away with it without much contest on his part.

But she was too kind and too exhausted to reprimand him in such fashion and relinquished her position as the disciplinarian as quickly as the thought came to mind. As he untangled himself and coughed his misery, she hastily clasped a hand over her muzzle to protect herself from the invasion of germs and veered her muzzle away with alarm in her eyes. Did he want her to be sick as well? If both of them fell ill when who was supposed to hunt? Who was supposed to mark the borders? Who was supposed to patrol- Oh, she didn’t care anymore. Her paw slipped from her muzzle and fell into her awaiting lap with a gruff sigh. Even thinking of what more needed to be done for the pack worn down her remaining energy. The throb of her muscles urged her not to comply so soon without a proper rest, but the inkling at the nape of her neck attempted to urge her otherwise.

Inevitably, it was the arm of her mate and his pathetic coaxing that tossed her care to the wind and pulled her exhausted body beneath the sick infested furs. They smelled heavily of his scent, overpowering her faint aroma as an effect of his lack of bathing and medicinal herbs. Though she was in no better shape herself; all wild and earthen ripe. But even that realization warranted little more than a gruff sigh as she plunged into the folds of their furs and drug the heavy tops to shroud over her.



ooc: 347 words.

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#5
The silken beauty had successfully been lured into the mountain of covers he was using and now her warmth was gladly welcomed to his shivering form. It took him several moments before her warmth seemed to wash over him and allow him the simple pleasure of admiring her underneath the covers. Even though he was suffering, this piece of heaven was enough to at least for the moment let him forget about just about bad he had been feeling. If there ever was a woman he could see ruling a pack by his side it would have been her. Not for her beauty, but for the small flashes of greatness he got to see from her. But she was pushing herself just as badly as he had been. And that he wouldn’t let continue.

“X’y” he spoke harshly, “Why do you run yourself raw, when you condemned me for doing the same thing?” he asked softly, his arm curling around her waist, claws scratching at the skin underneath. Even as sick as he was, having a soft gentle moment with her lately was so rare. So rare that he didn’t want to waste it.

“I need you here with me, even if you boss me around until I’m well, I don’t need you working yourself so bad that you’re sick and I can’t even take care of you…” What he was slowly getting at, and what he already felt was that the two of them should value each other more highly than the weak pack the served. Saluce didn’t quite want to say it but it did come out.

“Your more important to me than this weak pack, I rejoined the pack not because of my ties here, but because I knew you were here. Else I would have gone off to try and forge my own sometime.”
#6
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From beneath the soft mounds of furs, the woman curled herself within their warmth, burying deeply in all the sickness and musk to find the cool bottom of the pile. A pup trying to hide away from the conversation; that was what she had become but she was far too large of a wolf to succeed especially with her proportions in her humanoid form. But for the sake of muting her ears and keeping herself from sight, she tried. Several braids had come loose in the shuffle into warmth and tresses of auburn were strung haphazardly atop the pelts, woven through their fine hairs. But she cared little for vanity in the pursuit of invisibility.

But she was found as strong arms wove around her form and drew her into his sickness. It was a futile effort to resist so she did not bother and allowed herself to be conducted by her sickly mate. She only whined at the bother, wanting not to hear his scolding about her taking the chores upon her shoulders. There was always a retort of her lips but she stifled them always for the sake of being kind to his ears and to her own exhausted voice. She had no intension of getting sick; only one of them could afford it at a time.

Lazily she rolled in his arm setting her back parallel to the bottom of the pile of her furs and forced her weight down to be released and let fall to her back. She did not care too much about his complaining of her exertions, but her eyes did perk up when he spoke of the pack. Her tail flicked irritably as she turned to look at him, her eyes weighed with exhaustion but still seeing. “Weak?” she questioned with vocals laced with fatigue. “For me?” The purpose of him joining had been for her? What of the bonds she shared with his comrades, her words were meant to convey, but she was too tired to lengthen her inquiry especially when the warmth began to seep in.



ooc: 346 words.

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#7
Her reactions were beginning to irritate him. Her body was deceptively moving away from him before he was aware of it. It slowly started to seep into him, an emotion he hadn’t experienced when around her for a while. His headache started to throb as his weary eyes looked her over. Whatever it was that had gripped him and rendered him useless was obviously bothering her. What he had needed from her was something he wouldn’t probably ever say, but now he wondered if she truly had the capacity to be a mother.

“Is it that shocking? Nayru and Saul probably the two most trustworthy individuals here, the rest of the lot, damaged goods, or just plain crazy. You need only look as far as Razakiel to understand. This pack is weak, if Inferni decided to come knocking at our doors right now, what would happen X’y? They wouldn’t care in the least to slaughter everyone here and wouldn’t think twice about it if their alpha commanded it. “ This was exactly why he tirelessly worked so hard, his endurance having run completely to nothing.

“When Nayru was pregnant, I was making five rounds around the border a day. How much can one wolf do? How much can you do before you exhaust yourself? And then where does that leave us all? I came here for you, or else I would have missed ever knowing you. But I don’t stay in Ichika for the pack, I stay for you, Nayru and Saul.”
#8
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His confession shouldn’t have surprised her at all, but even her own shock from his words left her stunned and speechless. For one that called herself to love him, she shouldn’t have been in the dark to know that his reason for rejoining was because of her. But then she had based so much of her assumptions that it was because of Nayru and the bonds he shared with the remnant members of his old home. Adding herself to this equation felt self centered and unnecessary, but deep down she had known this to be true.

When the shock washed upon her concealed muzzle, it abruptly ebbed away when she again reclaimed sense and listened to him. “Our pack may now be weak,” she contested, shifting her weight as she draped an arm around his shoulders and pulled herself up to sit. “But you set Inferni too high upon a pedestal. You judge them too harshly… hardly a handful of them would be enraged enough to attack without provocation. And if they dared to try, would you sit idle and let the slaughter happen? You would not, and neither would I. You are exaggerating the severity.”

Growing more impassioned, the she-wolf situated herself firmly upon folded legs, facing her mate as she encircled his muzzle with a large hand. “And all this ‘one wolf’ nonsense. You were not the only one caring for Nayru and her pup. Even when we believed I was…-“ her ears fell back and eyes averted from his own “-…when we thought I carried life I still continued our duty until Sarian came to us. It was not always you alone and it will not always be you alone.” Carefully she released his muzzle. “I am here too you fool. And whether you choose to admit it or not you do stay for this pack. We are a part of this pack and do not stand alone from it.”



ooc: 323 words.

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#9
This muzzle grabbing business was beginning to irritate him to an extreme. It was bubbling in him as his eyes just bore into her. This weakness and sickness was killing him and he was determined to when he was better to make her aware of just how he hated this treatment. His growl came lowly in his throat, exhaustion didn’t keep him from voicing his disgust this time, and the anger welling in him was clearly becoming evident.

“First off, do not do that again, If I were going to bite you, I’d have already done it, and if you where speaking I’d let you speak. DO not muzzle me again.” He said, the seriousness in his tone bringing back memories of a fiery temper laying dormant in him. Of the times she had tested him he had given her warning one way or the other, and today he felt wasn’t the day to try him, even as sick as he was.

“Secondly, I stay because duty calls me to stay. I stay because of you, and I stay for the wolves who are worth it.” With her hands removed for the time being his body language slowly returned back to normal. The behemoth was still sick but waking the beast was no advisable, especially with the headache he was sporting right now.

“I need you right now, is that selfish of me? I can’t hardly move out into the cold without breaking into a spasm or shiver that takes hours to get rid of. This on top worrying about you hun.”
#10
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ooc:

She cared little to appease his threats or give into the fear it was meant to insight. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had bitten her if he so chose to do so, and undoubtedly would not be the last. Though she never voiced it, her reason for concealing is maw was to keep the excuses at bay. Her voice was hardly ever used unless it was for matters of importance and even then it was a soft spoken conscious flow of words. Hardly did she ever feel impassioned enough to raise her voice above its traditional whisper, and when it was uttered to the more resounding volume, she wanted to be heard without risk of interruption. But she could see the irritability on his face for her actions and chose to ignore it. She could not be bothered to entertain him with fear.

And when he spoke again of their home, she about deafened her ears to the conversation. This talk of staying only for those that were worth it was grating to her ears and upset the mental foundations she had built while residing in the pack. Their duty was to protect all that dwelled within their lands, not show favoritism. If that was truly his mentality then the pair of them were better off as loners. As a pack, they were family, they catered to all and ensured the wellbeing of the pack as a whole. Why he was disputing this with favoritism… she did not know. But she did not want to hear any more of it.

Inevitably, the she-wolf lowered her head back into the warm pile of furs with an audible sigh of defeat. She was too exhausted to string out this conversation, let alone compete with the stubborn male raring to go and get his point across. She just wanted to rest. How this nonsense of pack and who stayed for who came about, she could not bother to remember. But she did remember the warmth the bed provided and the hours of sleep she had missed the night before.

“No…” she murmured from within the encompassing mound of soft animal skins. “You are not selfish. And why would you-“ Oh, she couldn’t bother to inquire why he would need to wander out into the cold. Her voice trailed in the midst of her sentence whilst yet another sigh escaped from the warmth of the pile. “Saluce… rest please. I’m too tired and know you are as well…”





417 words.

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#11
Her strength was admirable, it was one of the qualities he liked about her but it seemed nothing that each of them would say would end the disagreement between the two. While she spoke of a higher calling, he simply just stayed for smaller reasons, selfish reasons. His thoughts on the pack as a whole where out there, but he’d stay and do what he could with what he felt was a broken system. As she called him to sleep he could only lay in silence, letting his mind slowly unravel the anger that has easily welled up in him. Her soft fur was only a small hands length away to him and yet it seemed to far for him to reach across and touch.

It took what seemed like forever before the dullness of sleep started to seep into him, he instinctively reached out for her wanting the comfort of his mate. Having her in his grasp a soft nuzzle was given before his muzzle parted and a soft phrase uttered.

“I’m sorry x’y” was all that came from him before sleep finally took him.


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