the road not taken
#1
[html]

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

February snowfall announced a new morning. Everything was still: white slashed with browns and greys, as if the forest were holding its breath—no, as if the forest were keeping a secret. Only a coyote breathed in this neck of the woods, limping away from the stench of marijuana and musk and salt and smoke, dragging a mangled paw. Wounds wept droplets of blood into the snow, marking a groggy trail that wound more and more as the minutes went on. But the coyote had suffered worse, much worse, and what hurt more than anything was the burden of betrayal on her shoulders. It had its own stench: guilt and fear and disappointment mingled with the faintest of hopes that she had made the right decision. Hope was all that kept her moving onward, heading north, even as the snowflakes started falling again and tipping her dirty pelt with pure white.

The yowls of coyotes chased her through a waking nightmare, but as she turned and strained her tattered ears toward the imagined cries, she realized that she was not being pursued by the ones she had left. Once again, she tried to convince herself that what she did was not morally wrong, only a disappointment: no blood on her paws, no hearts broken, no promises broken in a breath. She did not leave to join an enemy or to hurt, only to return to the diverging path she had abandoned with a smirk and a kiss.

She sought neutral land, land unmarked by generations of pack paws, only the wandering tread of loners. She sought someplace untouched by responsibility or war. She was simply tired, and one morning she’d woken with dazzling mismatched eyes in her memory, and she realized she couldn’t live with the regret. Her comrades, her friends, had responded with cold shock and stoic indignity and hurt anger that had ripped new wounds into her small body and nearly broken her paw. She didn’t blame them, really.

The female heaved a sigh and paused, deciding to rest and to see if the fates truly meant for her to walk this path—though it was too late to go back. She’d abandoned her clan for the sake of a pretty girl, after all, the mistake of a fool. Shaking her head, she settled down in the snow and closed her eyes for just a moment, before her ears came up from her slender skull suddenly. She tilted her muzzle up, pointing it at a hazy sun gripped by dark bare branches, and howled Blind’s name.

Vesper had returned to the fork in the road, and took it.


<style type="text/css">
.puprleves b {font-weight:bold; color:#b16e6a; letter-spacing:1px; text-shadow:#36383d 0px 0px 1px;}
.puprleves p {text-indent:0px; padding:5px 16px; margin:0px;}
.puprleves {margin:0 auto; width:500px; background-color:#5e616a; background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/mjB63.png); background-position:bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #36383d; border-radius:30px; padding: 10px 0px 530px 0px; font-family: georgia; font-size:12px; color:#9ea3b2; letter-spacing:.6px; word-spacing:.9x; line-height:15px; text-align:justify;}
.puprleves .ooc {margin:5px 0px 10px 0px; font-style:italic; letter-spacing:1px; text-align:center; width:100%;}</style> [/html]
#2
[html]
OOC ! / + 362


Blind had taken to walking on two legs that day, as it provided less discomfort than walking on four. Her auburn mane fell in loose ringlets around her deep-set eyes, cascading over her shoulders and down her slender back. Her steps were slow, contemplative, as she placed a delicate hand here and a careful step there, and her tail stayed calmly limp behind her. Her belly was full with a long-gone kill, and a gentle smile hung loosely about her dark lips. The air was chilly, forcing her to hug herself for warmth now and again, but otherwise the she-wolf was comfortable. Today, she assumed, would be a day like any other.

Pausing to take a break atop a large boulder, Blind kicked her feet like a little girl as she peered about the forest. With no one to talk to, no one to listen to, the she-wolf had resigned herself to studying the features of her surroundings, resulting in a greater appreciation for nature. She was turning into a slosh-minded hippie, with no home or family to speak of. But she didn’t care; life seemed to be easier this way…or at least, she forced herself to believe it was.

Long moments of silence passed, until eventually a howl shattered the frail atmosphere and settled into the very core of Blind’s body. A voice – and a familiar one at that – called out her name, singing to all the land in its coyote tone. Notes of pain flavored the call, and this set Blind into a frantic sprint toward the noise; if it was who she thought it was, it wouldn’t take a second thought to bring her to the source of the voice.

Bounding over bushes and dodging trees, Blind raced through the forest until a tawny, tattered figure made her stop – it WAS Vessie. With an indignant flick of her dark tail, Blind rushed to her friend’s side and immediately lapped at the wounds that peppered her mottled fur. She would take the time to inquire of the affair later, as well as why she had specifically called for her. But for now, she busied herself with cleaning the coywolf’s wounds.


<style type="text/css">
.blind-oo2 b {font-weight:bold; color:#9d4f76; letter-spacing:1px; text-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.2em #3c0c24; }
.blind-oo2 p {text-indent:0px; padding:5px 16px; margin:0px;}
.blind-oo2 {margin:0 auto; width:450px; background-color:#613c4f; background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/Ygg2L.png); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #0b052c; padding: 280px 0px 7px 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size:12px; color:#795064; text-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.2em #; letter-spacing:.6px; word-spacing:.9x; line-height:13.3px; text-align:justify;}
.blind-oo2 p b:before { content: open-quote; }
.blind-oo2 p b:after {content: close-quote; }
</style>
[/html]
#3
[html]


Angular muzzle fell back onto snow-wet paws, and the coywolf heaved a sigh—as if she had the time to sit and mope. Her wounds stung, though they were shallow bites made from a jealous friend in frenzy and were not meant to maim her. After all, she had left them after decent service, even if she would soon be forgotten, just another face fading from memory. Her only problem was her paw, the already injured one taken between strong jaws and nearly crushed. She was glad she’d learned how to cope without the use of that leg.

Snow-dusted lashes fell over pale blue eyes, and Vesper listened to the silence for a while as the cold weather numbed her body. A thin sheet of white covered her small form as the minutes passed, but she didn’t care. She existed in limbo, waiting to see what would happen next and dwelling on her thoughts as little as possible.

A sweet scent filled her nostrils then, and she lifted her head wearily only to find an auburn-black shape leaping for her. Her tawny tail began to beat at the ground as Blind lunged for her wounds and began to lick them clean. The sensation lulled her into a sense of comfort, and a smirk crawled across her lips. It looked like her escapade had paid off, at least for the moment, and she could see her dear friend again.

She let Blind tend to her wounds for a while before her head nudged up against the girl. “I’ll live,” she murmured first, and pushed herself up into a seated position before her weak smirk faded into something serious. “Listen, we need to—” No, those weren’t the right words. What were the right words? “After last time, I was thinking…” Closer, much closer, but she had to say it and be done.

Vesper sighed. “I chose you.” She met the dear girl’s mismatched eyes. “We can run away now, like you said. Just me and you. And never come back.”

She cracked a hesitant grin. “Whadduya say?”


<style type="text/css">
.puprleves b {font-weight:bold; color:#b16e6a; letter-spacing:1px; text-shadow:#36383d 0px 0px 1px;}
.puprleves p {text-indent:0px; padding:5px 16px; margin:0px;}
.puprleves {margin:0 auto; width:500px; background-color:#5e616a; background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/mjB63.png); background-position:bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #36383d; border-radius:30px; padding: 10px 0px 530px 0px; font-family: georgia; font-size:12px; color:#9ea3b2; letter-spacing:.6px; word-spacing:.9x; line-height:15px; text-align:justify;}
.puprleves .ooc {margin:5px 0px 10px 0px; font-style:italic; letter-spacing:1px; text-align:center; width:100%;}</style> [/html]
#4
[html]

464 → OOC


Despite Vesper’s struggle with words and her brief dismissal, Blind stayed beside her tattered friend to nurse her wounds, while keeping her hand on one of the coywolf’s arms subconsciously in order to keep her from poofing out of sight. It didn’t taste like a dream, but it certainly felt like a dream, and Blind certainly didn’t want to wake up no matter what had happened last time they crossed paths. The dark wolfess had been pining away since they parted, crumbling down to nothing until numbness shut her up. She could hardly believe the words coming out of Vesper’s mouth now, but a twinge of pain still forced her to challenge them.

Her tongue fell still – her whole body fell still – until she turned her head to expel a mouthful of spit and drying blood. Her ears flattened against her head and she put two and two together – the wounds must have come from her pack retaliating to her decision. Suddenly she felt guilty, like she could have prevented this from happening somehow, but it was Vesper’s decision after all. With a brief, contemplative dip of her head, Blind tried to sort everything out all at once, but thoughts weren’t sticking and her heart was beating so fast that the rhythm alone was enough to distract her. Finally, she shook herself, allowing her bi-colored eyes to meet her friend’s for longer than just a moment. Vesper, she finally said, her delicate voice a near whisper, why did you do this? You could’ve gotten yourself killed. She couldn’t mask the surprise in her voice, but it wasn’t just from the fact that she’d run away. Though Blind didn’t know much about the ways of Inferni, the wolves of Crimson Dreams had allowed her to leave without so much as a word in her favor. But perhaps their ‘silent treatment’ of sorts was their token of departure instead of a brutal attack. Inferni was known for breeding harsh canines, after all… Anyway, none of that mattered now. Vesper was here…her Vessie was here. And for her? Surely it had to be a dream…

Lowering her head again, a tiny smile crept across her dark lips, growing larger and larger until it broke into a giggle, and then a laugh. Yes, she was laughing uproariously – her arms sought a hold around her stomach and her shoulders bounced with each breath. Tears crawled into the corners of her eyes until she finally wiped them away, the noise bubbling back into her throat as it died off. Her arms then left her own waist to wrap tightly around Vesper, and her face sought refuge in the hybrid’s neck. Vessie, you’re crazy, she whispered, finally pulling away. Her expression became serious then, and she added, What changed your mind?


<style type="text/css">
.blindflower b {font-weight:bold; color:#a77faa; letter-spacing:1px; text-shadow:#324350 1px 1px 2px;}
.blindflower p.ooc {font-size: 11px; text-align:right; padding:0px 30px; font-style:italic;}
.blindflower p.ooc + p {padding:0px 5px;}
.blindflower .wc {text-transform: uppercase; font-weight:bold; color:#684f6a; }
.blindflower p {text-indent:25px; padding:5px 20px; margin:0px;}
.blindflower .float {width:200px; height:100px; float:left;}
.blindflower {width:500px; margin:0 auto; background-color:#68949d; background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/tvHbX.png); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #324350; padding:170px 0px 4px 0px; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size:12px; color:#324350; line-height:16px; letter-spacing:.5px; text-align:justify;}
</style>
[/html]
#5
[html]


The girl stopped, one hand on her foreleg, and after spitting out the result of her washing reprimanded her softly for risking her life. Those words were ones she had heard countless times—most often from herself. Pride had been the reason she’d changed into a luperci, causing her to stand up to the woman who’d changed her even if she was outmatched. She’d risked her life often as a teenager too, her brain perhaps not developed enough to even know the things she was doing were stupid.

But she shook her head once, firmly. “They would not have killed me,” Vesper replied, and she believed in that wholeheartedly. Had she committed a crime other than leaving, she might have been, but many members of Inferni had slunk off only to return months or years later, including the Aquila. Her wounds were only the mark of grief for her departure, of frustration at how foolish she was. “They only attacked because they were hurt, and they cared.” That statement was almost ridiculous, but she cast her blue eyes to the side and didn’t clarify on what she said.

Soon, Blind began to laugh—and not a giggle or chuckle, not a short melodious laugh, but a loud and long bout of laughter that she had to contain, encircling her arms around herself. She managed to contain herself long enough to wrap her arms tightly around the coywolf, whose brow pinched at the feel of the girl’s muzzle against her neck. She reciprocated the embrace as best she could in her lupus form, whimpering quietly and happily as she bestowed a few licks on the wolf’s shoulder.

The wry grin that quirked her lips when she was called crazy faded when Blind’s did, and she frowned at the question. It would be silly to give a logical answer, but she didn’t want to say something cliché, either. Honesty was the best course of action, and humbly she glanced down at her pale paws.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” Vesper said. “And I remembered how hurt you looked and how hurt I felt when we last parted ways. I just—didn’t think I could live with myself if I left it at that, you know?” She shrugged and bit her lip, her blue eyes at last lifting to the she-wolf’s bi-colored ones, reading her expression intently. “This is—this is me taking a risk leaving the clan…but I hope that it’ll be worth it.” She smirked. “If you’ll have me.”


<style type="text/css">
.puprleves b {font-weight:bold; color:#b16e6a; letter-spacing:1px; text-shadow:#36383d 0px 0px 1px;}
.puprleves p {text-indent:0px; padding:5px 16px; margin:0px;}
.puprleves {margin:0 auto; width:500px; background-color:#5e616a; background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/mjB63.png); background-position:bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #36383d; border-radius:30px; padding: 10px 0px 530px 0px; font-family: georgia; font-size:12px; color:#9ea3b2; letter-spacing:.6px; word-spacing:.9x; line-height:15px; text-align:justify;}
.puprleves .ooc {margin:5px 0px 10px 0px; font-style:italic; letter-spacing:1px; text-align:center; width:100%;}</style> [/html]


Forum Jump: