Roland sighed a bit, as his brisk jog slowed to a leisurely walk . He had spent the better part of a day trying to navigate the maze-like ruins of down-town Saint John. Walls of debris blocked most streets, along with the most obvious route to the east.
The wolf grasped the maple shaft of his iron-tipped spear as his grey-blue eyes darted around, seeing if he could spot anything of use. A moment later he noticed a stone building that looked at least somewhat structurally sound. One side was covered in wrist-thick vines, which would make it easy for him to climb.
The young wolf slid his spear into a spot fitted for it on his backpack, cracked his knuckles then made the tasking climb to the top of the building. When he got to the top he was panting and sweating, but otherwise alright.
The top of this building gave him a decent vantage point of the surrounding area. He saw that the land-bridge connecting the southern peninsula of the city to the more mainland eastern part was blocked by a pile of rubble and debris at least six times taller than him.
He muttered under his breath as he continued to "scope" out the city. One thing he did notice was another route to the eastern side of the city, although it seemed to be much more out of the way, but at least the route looked clear.
Roland smiled a bit. Maybe he would be able to get to a more populous area. With that he turned to make the climb back down, but something caught his eye; at least one figure darting through the overgrown patch of green space about a street-length from his current position. He quickly laid prone atop the building, as he gazed down, hoping to be able to discern whom or what had moved down there.
He scanned the area below him; then sighed. His eyes must have been playing tricks on him. With that, the young wolf made his way down the vines, back onto street level. He knew what direction to go now, and the area around the battered pavement looked relatively flat. Roland moved onward, through an overgrown field behind a single-story brick building with a partially collapsed roof.
He hummed to himself, nibbling his bottom lip as he trudged through the thigh-high phalaris grass, being careful not to let his paws fall too hard, as these over-grown fields tended to be full of all sorts of hidden, nasty leftovers of the humans.
When he was clear of the field he found himself following a "road" of sorts, made of rotted wood and rusted metal. He glanced at the long beams of rusted beyond salvage steel and rolled his eyes a bit.
"Such a waste of good metal." He muttered, stepping up onto one of the beams, and stretching his arms out to maintain his balance as he traversed the rail.
OCC- Hope you don't mind my joining!  BTW referring to character as Red Eyes in this thread and not his real name. Sorry it's a bit long 
Red Eyes decided to keep looking ahead, if a slave was indeed following him, then getting away was his first step. He had been hunting on the outskirts of a ruined human settlement, when a dark grey wolf appeared from below a shallow bank in the trees. Red Eyes didn't stop and get a good look at the wolf, but by his rugged appearance, Red Eyes could only guess that he wasn’t looking for directions.
Red Eyes raced towards the ruins, hoping that the randomly arranged heights of the stones there would give him cover from this slave. He had already tripped twice on the rubble and stone that lay around him, so looking forward was his only option to avoid these habits. Soon enough a rough stone wall appeared, getting higher up would allow him to climb, and climbing for Red Eyes was faster than running. He skidded to a halt in front of the ruined wall and quickly found foot holds and parts easy to grab. Sure enough he reached the top, it wasn’t far off the ground, but from standing on this wall, he could hop across to other walls and ruins. As long as this slave chasing him only had a knife, he wouldn't be able to get Red Eyes from this distance.
Holding his arms out to keep balance, Red Eyes proceeded forwards, careful in case stone parts were to loosen and fall at his feet. After he had got his rhythm and balance, he could almost run along the walls. He smiled as he did, not slave could keep up with him at this pace. He looked back to check his distance from the wolf. That was his downfall.
Literally.
Not seeing the crack running from part of the wall in front of him that edged down to the side, Red Eyes stepped down, and as pressure ran through the unstable wall it collapsed. Red Eyes fell crashing down with a rain of rubble behind him. He quickly lifted his arms above his head as he landed against a hard metal surface. As he landed, pieces of rotten wood sprayed away, and the stone rubble made a manic sound as they also hit the surface.
Red Eyes groaned, and carefully raised himself to stand. He shook his head quickly and glanced across the path. He went cold when he saw another wolf some way down the path, he studied it, and to his relief saw that the wolf had mostly light grey fur, and not fully dark grey fur like the slave. But that meant the slave was still out there looking, and now it was a danger to both him and this new wolf. Red Eyes hurried towards the new stranger to warn him of the danger.
((No worries. Also, sorry for the short post, I gave it a bit of an edit))
Roland made his way down the railroad tracks for about twenty minutes, when he heard the crash of falling rubble. He readied his spear, gripping the pole-arm's shaft tightly.
"Hello?" He called out, carefully walking toward the source of the din.
His blue-grey eyes scanned the low walls of the ruined buildings that lined the train-tracks. "If you're hurt, I know enough about the basics to patch you up." He said, loud enough for anyone near to hear.
As he walked closer, he noticed a black-furred wolf with vivid red eyes. He smiled a bit and extended his hand. "Hello there." Roland said. "Are you alright?"
OCC- There is a Terminator reference in this post, see if you can spot it
Red Eyes breathed heavily once he'd reached the grey wolf, the strain of climbing, jumping, falling and running was taking its toll on him. He looked down at the wolf's extended hand, while confused at first; he remembered that some wolves used the shaking of two hands as a greeting. Red Eyes had no idea where this trait came from, but it was a little strange. Either way, Red Eyes ignored it and looked at the wolf, "I'm fine thanks.... Little out of breath.... but that can't be helped," Red Eyes took a large breath and was about to explain their danger, until he noticed the strange weapon in the wolf's free hand, "Is that a spear.... Haven’t seen one of them before.... Not many use them.... Pretty hard to control if I'm-" Red Eyes stopped suddenly when he saw the dark grey wolf further down the track.
It froze in place, when it saw the new wolf, probably because attack a wolf from a pack would be dangerous. Red Eyes inhaled air through his nose, this wolf wasn't from a pack, he panicked as soon enough the slave would smell it too. The slave raised its muzzle up for a few seconds and looked back at Red Eyes, snarling.
Red Eyes' eyes widened, "Ok listen, there's a little problem with the situation you've landed in, and I'd appreciate it if you co-operated until we're safe, all right?" Red Eyes didn't wait for a reply, as he saw the slave start running in his direction, "Come with me if you want to live." Red Eyes gesture for the wolf to follow with his hand before starting towards the ruins to his left.
((Heh. Spotted it))
Roland smiled a bit. "The ruins here aren't all that stable." He started, cracking his neck a little by turning his head to one side. He noticed that the wolf seemed somewhat uneasy.
"Yeah, it's a spear. My mom made it for me when I first joined my village's militia." He started. As the wolf stopped and looked away, Roland did the same.
He noticed the other wolf and readied his polearm, the sun catching on the weapon's keen point and glaring for a moment, as he grasped it tightly in both hands.
Roland listened as the black-pelted wolf spoke, giving slight nods to show he was indeed paying attention to what he said. "I've been in worse situations." He said as he followed the other wolf.
When they were inside of one of the ancient human store-houses, Roland looked around. It had been picked clean. His hand slid to his pack and he handed this new wolf two of his six throwing javelins, which he used for hunting.
"Do you know how to use a throwing spear?" He asked, giving his polearm a quick flourish as he readied himself in a combat stance.
OCC- Yay, hmmmm... What other references could I use.... (BTW the building Red Eyes refers to climbing is that same building your character climbed earlier.)
Red Eyes was keen on the wolf's trust in a stranger, not many would willingly follow a stranger. So this wolf was from a village, lucky start in life Red Eyes thought to himself. He had heard of many unfortunate starts in life, some even making him doubt the nature of the whole wolf species; it wasn't often that Red Eyes heard of someone having a good start in life.
He kept his pace quick, not as quick as he could go, as the grey wolf following might not be as fast or as used to running. Red Eyes smiled at the wolf's remark about previous encounters with danger, "Yeah but, let that guy catch you, and he'll take you to the worst situation possible." He shivered as the years of being a slave returned to the front of his memory. He quickly shook his head to push it away and returned to concentrating forward.
The wolf offered him two spears, but Red Eyes shook his head, "Thank you, but I prefer to use my knife," He said and patted his leather sheath on his belt that hid his knife, "I'm quite used to throwing this." He look forward, he knew the only way to truly get away from the slave was to climb up high, he looked to his left at a tall building, there were green vines on one side, hopefully they were strong enough to hold weight. He turned to the wolf, "Hope you like climbing," He said and pointed at the tall ruin, "We need to get up high if we want to get rid of our bad situation"
Roland did indeed have a more fortunate start to life inside the walls of his village, but he was not a stranger to battle. Their quaint little hamlet often found themselves attacked by loner raiding parties, but had repelled many attacks.
Roland nodded at his comment. "Ah, alright." He said, taking the spears back as he put his spear back on his pack. That done he slung the throwing spears back into their place, tightened his pack; then gave his neck a crack.
"Sounds like a plan. And yeah, I'm pretty good at climbing, stranger." He said, smiling as he started scaling the rusted-out, steel box containers for trains that no longer ran, full of goods that were either rotted or ravaged by time beyond any use.
He got to the catwalk that hung above the warehouse floor; then readied his javelin, gripping three in his left paw and one in his dominant right paw. He was ready to defend himself and this new wolf from whoever pursued the two.
Red Eyes was glad of the wolf's agreement, and watched as the wolf climbed up the stair-like pile of old metal containers. The wolf readied himself on top of a warehouse, and Red Eyes chuckled quietly, I like this guy, He thought, He’s not got much fear .
Red Eyes studied the warehouse, the wolf has a good idea, and from up there they could easily spot and kill the slave chasing them. Red Eyes quickly climbed the piled metal boxes and joined the wolf on top of the warehouse. He took out his knife and scanned the area around them. As far as he could see, the slave hadn't caught up yet, Red Eyes hoped, that they'd lost the slave running to here.
Red Eyes relaxed his tense shoulders and sat down, he looked up at the wolf next to him, "The name's Eric by the way, most just call me Red Eyes" He didn't mind giving away his first name to this wolf, as trust went Red Eyes felt he could trust in this wolf to some extent, just not enough to give away his last name yet.
He gazed across at the ruined city, such a place would of been beautiful in its grand days, but now it laid waste to dangerous climbs and scavenging knick-knacks.
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When Roland was atop the catwalk above the store-house's floor, he looked around, letting his eyes wander to each window that was able to be opened, the large, sliding double-doors at the front which almost took up an entire wall, and two smaller ones made for one person to walk in or out of.
He had no time to marvel in the wonder of the accomplishments of a long-extinct race, or what this place would have been like during operational times. He needed to focus on the task at hand. Defending himself and this new wolf, “Red Eyes” as he called himself.
“My name is Roland.” He replied, nibbling his lip for a moment.
“Well I'm glad it's you I ran into, rather than this other.” He said, gripping one of his throwing spears, ready to drift it into the torso of the first thing that walked into the warehouse. He let his militia training “take over”.
“Who are we up against?” He asked, looking toward Eric. “What is he armed with, and what might his potential battle-plans be?”
Word Count :: 182
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Occ-
Red Eyes nodded towards the wolf, "Pleasure to meet you Roland," he chuckled quickly, "Despite the situation."
The side of Red Eyes' lips curled up as Roland spoke, yes he should be glad, most likely the slave chasing them would attempt to kill Roland. When Red Eyes was a slave they were normal told that any contact with other wolves must be dealt with, most took this to mean kill anyone who sees them.
Red Eyes took a deep breath before answering Roland's battle questions, "This wolf is a slave, if anything he'll only have a small knife." Red Eyes' ex-master, Bear, had never trusted any of his slaves with anything more than a knife. Red Eyes looked over to Roland, "The problem is he won't be alone, once in danger or seriously injured, the slave will probably make a short whistle, just audible for any wolves in the area. The whistle will signal danger and all other slaves in the area around us will come to the noise source."
He thought of ways through his mind to prevent the slave from emitting the noise, and then he pointed at Roland's spear, "How good are you with those things?" He asked "Because if you could aim it at the slave's throat, it might stop him signalling the others."
If Roland wasn't able to hit the slave, then Red Eyes would, he took out his knife, and flipped it in his hand.
They waited for a few moments, before the dark grey feet of a wolf appeared at the door to the warehouse.
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Roland gripped the single javelin in his right hand and scanned the room from the catwalk. He did his best to calm his breathing and control the small tremors that came from nervousness.
“Calm down.” He thought. “You've done this countless times before.” He glared down at the open door, then readied the small spear to be thrown.
“Likewise.” He replied in a hushed tone to this Red Eyes. “And don't worry about me missing. I could plant this spear in his head from fifty meters, if need be.”
The young wolf had killed before. To him taking a life in defence of himself and others was just another task to be completed for the greater good, a kin to chopping wood or finding bog-iron. Not necessary rewarding, but a job that needed to be done for the betterment of a community.
Roland's ears perked up a bit as he heard the sound of foot-falls on gravel. He turned to Red Eyes and gave a bit of a nod. “Four shots.” He thought. “Four spears in as many seconds when the rogue slave enters.”
Word Count :: 190
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