To the uninfected, things that were normal and common to the luperci were extraordinary and fascinating. The entire festival was a myriad of new sights and smells. The sheer mass of individuals and their wares. The tents and booths filled with things beyond Kiara's wildest dreams. At some point the excited atmosphere became stifling and Kaira couldn't take it any longer. She had to return to nature, to get away from the humanity of the situation and return to the natural world.
The walk back to Ichika was a long one and Kiara took it all in stride. She had started on Saluce's drills as well as her own added running. After Amy's attack, Kiara was forced to rest and recover from her extensive injuries. Due to that, her physical fitness had degraded and her abilities were no longer what they once were. Although she still had eating problems, her body was gradually returning to peak health. Her muscles were sore, but it was worth the pain. Kiara wanted to run again, to regain her former stamina and strength so that she could beat Saluce in a wrestling match.
A stiff winter breeze brought Kiara out of her thoughts. Her muzzle raised as she tried to catch a better sample of the scent that was caught in the wind. It smelled like Ichika, no more than Ichika, it smelled like Jace. The white wolf's tail began to wag as she looked around for her fellow pack mate. Jace and Kiara weren't close friends, but the arctic wolf respected and admired the wolf-hyrbid. Jace was strong and had the air of an alpha, while Kiara was simple and would always be a subordinate.
Kiara followed the scent, her hunting skills put to good use as she tried to locate her pack mate. Eventually the white wolf stopped below a tree where the scent was strongest. She circled the tree several times and although Jace's scent was there, Jace herself was missing. Confused, she sat in the snow while her brain did mental loops as she tried to figure out the mystery.
The hustle and bustle of the festival was enough to overwhelm even the hardiest of people, the most seasoned of traders and Jace was far from an experienced trader, in fact she had little knowledge of it at all. And so eventually after several brushes with confrontation from rude crowds-people who assumed it was okay to shove the smaller female out of the way rather than ask politely, which they sorely regretted once they had done, Jace retreated away from the noise and visual excitements after seeking and finding Neela she informed her of where she was heading and then set off.
Immediately Jace regained some of her inner peace just beyond the Festival's borders and felt the high strung tension leave her body. The afternoon was warm, hinting at the summer that was quickly approaching and without the eager shouting of buyers and sellers she could hear the soft chirping of the resident avian life. Trills and cheeps and warbles, all kinds of sounds as she walked slowly through the forested surroundings. Flowers were in spectacular bloom and showed an amazing array of colors to her eyes, a magnificence that was entrancing
Heavy breathing alerted her that she was no longer alone and using her senses, she pinpointed a section of activity and realised with small despair that ahead of her a bear was padding his way through the forest in the same manner than she was. Wishing to avoid another confrontation and a possible fight with the creature Jace took to the nearest tree, a towering oak and climbed until she was high among the newly leafed branches and well out of sight. With a sigh of relief Jace lost herself to the wanderings of her mind, safe in her tree away from the world and slowly drifted into a light daze, warmed by the sun's rays and cooled by a slight breeze, she was experiencing perfection at that moment.
Some time later, she wasn't sure how long exactly she was woken by the leaves rustling more than they had before and found the wind had picked up a little. Her treetop perch now swung more than she was comfortable with so she began her decent back down the tree's large trunk. It was as she was dropping from the last branch that she realised she was not alone, a lupus bound wolf sat below the tree she had used as temporary shelter. Fortunately she managed to avoid landing on the snowy female and had to jump a step backwards to avoid falling over from the momentum of her landing.
It took the barest fraction of a second for her to identify the unknown as one of her own, and she bobbed her head in greeting to the pup sitter. She blinked in surprise at this coincidence of fate that they should both be at this same place at this same time with the odds so against it, still she offered a welcoming smile,
Namaste Pup-sitter. Odd to meet you so far away from home.
The sudden appearance of a luperci nearly scared Kiara out of her fur. She jumped back as quickly as she could and the two females managed to avoid crashing into each other. Kiara sat wide eyed as she stared at the multi-colored female. Confused, the arctic wolf looked up and back down to Jace. Japing jaws opened and closed silently in disbelief. She had been in the tree. Jace was in the tree! When Jace bobbed her head in greeting Kiara could only manage a bob in return. It took her several moments to reconcile with the fact that a canine had been in a tree. As an uninfected wolf, she had never even dreamed such a thing was possible.
When the higher ranked female greeted her, Kiara scrambled to find her words and manners. "Nama...Namaste Jace. I uh, came to see the festival. It's so strange and wonderful." She lowered herself a little and her tail wagged. A toothy smile spread across her face and the question burned in her eyes. Kiara wanted to know how Jace got into the tree. Finally the arctic wolf couldn't hold her question any longer and she blurted out, "How did you get in the tree? That's just... really cool!" Again, she looked up and stared at the tree. It was so tall, and although Jace was also tall in stature the young female doubted Jace was big enough. No matter how hard she tried, Kiara couldn't picture any canine within the tree's woody branches.
Their surprise was matched within each other and Jace let forth a wry grin to cover her muzzle, fate was indeed fickle and easily amused it seemed. She considered Kiara a tentative venture of a friend, fragile enough that any large enough disagreement would fracture and destroy it. She was away that the non luperci respected her but the extend of it was unknown to her so Jace clung to her assumptions of the frail friendship. Mindful of Kiara's shorter stature the hybrid crouched down so that they were closer to the same level, she disliked standing so tall above one she was trying to converse with,
"Yeah, it's strange for me too. We never had anything this big where I come from, it would have been too much trouble to organise but we did have small trading excursions, those were strange and wonderful too." She was no tradesman but she was learning quickly. She looked up at the tree she had dropped from, confusion tinged her face and her brows drew together, whatever she had expected Kiara to talk about, the tree was not it,
Fate had nothing to do with the meeting of the two canines. Kaira had caught wind of Jace's scent and had followed it to the tree where she resided. Kiara didn't even believe in fate, although the concept had been woven into the fanciful tales her mother used to weave. Her mother used to always speak of fate, gods, and spirits; and Kiara always took the stories with a grain of salt. They never held up in her mind, thus the idea that fate had led to the meeting of the pack members never even crossed her thoughts.
When Jace crouched down to Kiara's level, the alabaster female respectfully looked away. It wasn't until Jace proclaimed that the festival was strange the Kiara was put at ease. She didn't think any of the luperci thought like her. They all seemed so relaxed and comfortable in the festival. She had doubted that any of them saw the wonder and strange quality the festival contained. To hear that Jace thought the same way was a great relief, even if it wasn't the hybrid's first trading festival. "I've never been to something like this before. They didn't have festivals were I grew up. None of us could shift, so trading was...useless I guess." All of the packs that had surrounded Kiara's birth pack were filled with natural born wolves. Although, the number of packs that resided close to her valley had been limited to only a few.
When the arctic female asked about the tree, confusion darkened Jace's expression. She seemed perplexed by Kiara's question, although the alabaster female thought it was a valid one. "Wow, I can't believe you can climb trees. I've only ever seen squirrels and bear cubs do that." It was a foreign concept to the uninfected wolf, but when Kiara really studied the luperci's bi-pedal form she could sort of understand how it was possible for them to climb trees.
