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WARNING: This thread contains material exceeding the general board rating of PG-13. It may contain very strong language, drug usage, graphic violence, or graphic sexual content. Reader discretion is advised. |
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Sep. 29th : Lupus
The mutts tracks dented the sand far back into the southern horizon, the path marked by canid prints scattered lazily behind. Finally getting a reprieve from the Castle was a relief, as soon as the rains had lightened she had been out, searching the shores again for her shipmates. Aoves had been steadily loping well through the dawn and into the afternoon, but soggy paws lifted and fell determinedly as she plodded the length of the waterlogged shore. Her eyes had long since been deadened to the misted white that billowed off the sea, her focus unwavering as she plodded loyally forward, treating every form that flickered in the corner of her eye as no more than a shadow bouncing off the mist.
Something further ahead caught her attention though; a form that did not dissipate or spiral lazily away - whatever it was, the thing was solid, and motionless. Her trot slid into a languid lope, the pace quickening further as the mass began to take form. A sharp yelp rang out across the shore as she neared it, the sound trailing off into a shameful, pitiful whine as she realized the cry had been her own. Eyes slid slowly over the misshapen form, blank with horror and disgust.
A grotesquely swollen body had been placed ashore by the waves, the thin white skin of her captain now pulled taut against his bloated body, strained as though barely withstanding the tension of water trapped within translucent flesh. Scant tendrils of strawberry hair still managed to cling to his skull, plastered by slimy salt and grime - and the rest had likely eaten away by the fish, or shredded as he crashed his way down the rocky coast. The corpse had clearly traveled far, the sorry remainder of a scalp and other missing patches hinting that the jagged coastline had done more damage than the sea and storm.
Silver eyes completed their course along his body; but she could only stand there motionless, staring all the while. It shamed her to admit it, but the thought of contact with the pale mess of flesh filled her with repulsion beyond belief. There was something so different in this from the death of prey; dark blood would spill from their wounds, the crimson flow of their lifeblood persisting even after death. The thing at her feet hinted at none of that however - his booming laugh seemed misplaced on those jaws now peeled back in rigid grimace, no hint of color decorated the corpse besides the dreary green of sea weed. It was as though he had never been alive.
She lowered slowly to her haunches, simply deciding to pay her final respects with head bowed, clouds of white escaping from her parted jaws in a wordless prayer.
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OOC: This was on the open threads list. I'm allowed to post here, rite?
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</style>  "If I was alpha..."
A laughing alto song murmured just below the sound of the waves, distant initially and barely audible.
"...I'd be appointed on Friday... assassinated on Saturday... rotted by Sunday... If I was--"
The lines didn't really rhyme, and each iteration of the lyrics was louder than the previous. The singer traveled an unwavering line parallel the coast, jauntily trotting along the sand despite the morbidity of her lyrics, straight on her way to the local port. She navigated primarily by listening to and watching the water, as the fog kept her from seeing as far as she would have liked to.
However, the mourner and the corpse were both on the ground partway between the hyena and her destination. The spotted beast stopped nearly twenty feet off from them, quieting her song and taking a brief sniff of the salty air.
Well, plainly it was another "wolf". She didn't understand the subcategories of "wolf" yet: the coyotes, the dogs, and the wolves proper. In her experience, wolves were inordinately friendly, however, so she felt perfectly confident in trotting closer after her pause. The scent of very old death came to her nose as well, but this scent was indiscernible from food and camouflaged with salt and it didn't occur to her that it should bother her at first.
"How's it, wolf?" she asked cheerily as she came closer, only pausing again when she was close enough to see the other's countenance in the mists. "Oh. Is something the matter?" Her dark eyes went down to the corpse. [/html]
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Coming steps pulled the mutt from her absence of mind; though the scent of sea obscured the scent, she could guess that it was only one body, a comforting thought. Her head rose and angled stiffly towards the sound, but even as her neck craned, could only just make out the form materializing from the shroud of mist.
Carrion descends so quickly here came the humorless jest, she thinking it was another who could see her state of sorrow, and was drawn by it.
She was pleased to find herself wrong however, the face that parted through the mist looked friendly, though that was about the only identifying factor she could claim to recognize. Eyes were allowed to rove curiously over the spots and build, lingered on the odd jointing of her legs, traveling last to observe the others face, returning it with only a blank stare of her own.
Despite this, she still took a protective step to rest beside the body, placing herself with lingering loyalty between it and the other…canine? Besides this subtle motion, her posturing remained neutral, her face devoid of both hostility and openness.
She listened to the other speak at another time, face relaxing slightly with the casual nature of the others words. At another time, she proudly would have piped up her dog heritage in addition to the greeting, but it seemed unimportant at the moment.
“Not something I would wish to trouble you with, stranger.” She commented simply, a dry smile gently tugging at one side of her lips. She might have called her strange one, rather than stranger, but for all she knew this creature was native. Even if it wasn't, she could hardly claim to be native herself; as such she hardly had a right to label.
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</style> Shylome tilted her head to the side for a moment, noticing the placement of the body between herself and some thing on the ground that surpassed the sands and fog for paleness.
Now she had two choices at this point, and she went through both of them in her mind. She could curiously investigate the object, as if it was worth a casual guard, it must be valuable on some level. She could continue on her way, and thus not offend the other female before her.
Well, what are the chances of me ever seeing her again if something does go wrong? the hyena thought to herself.
"Oh, it is no trouble at all..." she said, sidestepping and attempting to move forward to investigate the object further, sniffing in the salty scent of the sea. "I would be happy to help you with whatever it is." [/html]
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Though she could not help but flatten her ears in frustration and surprise, the stranger did make the situation more clear; it was futile to guard something that lacked life, risking her own. Her ears pivoted forward an instant later, the flimsy cartilage angled attentively towards the stranger, more interested in the exotic structural movements than persistent mannerisms.
"Now now, that 'whatever it is' you refer to 'appens to be an old friend." Over the initial surprise of seeing the creature, the natural warmth had returned to her tone. She remembered at the last minute to tack on a half-hearted "Or rather was." The woman supposed the creature meant no harm, though she did not surrender her stance even as it drew near. Her head was gently tucked and tilted as her eyes tracked its investigation; the canine had broad muzzle, she imagined it would be a nightmare to find it locked around her unprotected throat.
The moments it took to observe the corpse, she took to look over it - supposing from the scent, and what her eyes glimpsed seemingingly between its legs that it was a male, but the voice made her question that judgement. Though thoroughly befuddled, she finally decided to reply, her french drawl laden with a sympathetic sigh. "I suppose the best thing for the poor soul now is to bury it." Pale eyes flickered down to the beasts wide paws. "Are those paws of yours as 'elpful as they look, mon cher?
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</style> Oh. It was a dead thing. Shylome sniffed twice. Well, it looked like a dead canine. Rather, the most similar dead thing Shylome had seen to this one was a jackal.
Yet, the other wolf said this was her friend. Jackals were perverse creatures with loose clans, so this was probably the corpse of a wolf and therefore worthy of some measure of respect. Well, at least as much respect as one could allow for the dead.
"Why of course!" she answered the stranger's question with a heavy enthusiasm. "First thing an infant does after popping out of its mother is dig a hole, right?" The beast took several steps up the beach and started burrowing quickly, shoveling out great armfuls of the ground. Digging was fun and familiar. Reminded the African of home and idyllic days gone by. It was a childish thing. She didn't stop digging when she spoke again, the words punctuated by sprays of sand."Unless it is different in this land. I can never tell." [/html]
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As the other began digging, Aoves lips gradually cracked into a gentle grin. “Thank you.” The words escaped as a grateful sigh; the task of burying the captain had filled her with illogical dread – it was a relief to know that she would not be handling it alone.
After saying the quiet thanks, she two lowered herself to the ground enough to dig, webbed paws skillfully gripping, scooping, and flinging the compacted and soggy sand forcefully behind her. Her gaze flickered curiously to her companions at the next words, a puzzled brow lifting to signify her confusion, but she responding with an inquisitive smile. “I do not know of many pups that dig with their eyes still shut. This ‘ome of yours, is it someplace nearby?”
Speaking through the digging just as the other had, her eyes lowered back to the task as soon as her jaws closed, the mutts mind thinking all the while. She thought that she would have remembered seeing others similar, but looking at the creature, she was hoping that she was right in even guessing it was canine.
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</style> So it was as she expected. "I come from a place on the other side of this sea. While this land holds limitless perversions, it is relatively, well..." She pulled herself out of the growing hole for a moment to stare out where a wave licked at the omnipresent fog, at that horizon where the sea and sky seemed to collapse and blocked her view of her former home. She gazed for only a moment, then scooted back to her spot to resume the interrupted digging. Better to be present to the moment.
"...safe. My home was dangerous and we couldn't afford not to see. Couldn't afford not to kill either, so my kind is born with teeth too. I had to dig a hole in the back of the hole I was born in to hide from my sister." A moment of silence, save the sound of the shuffling sand. "Wasn't a very good idea, I guess. I got hungry, so I stopped and stood up for myself. We fought a lot, but I ended up being the one to live. She died in the hole I dug to hide from her."
More digging. "I think this idea of burying dead friends is a pretty good one. Your vultures here are not so numerous. And digging is good fun. Lifts the spirits, ne?" [/html]
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She remained a good audience through the others history, interjecting the occasional surprised 'Hm?', but never interrupting despite her lack of understanding. It made sense, she supposed, the other certainly seemed to have a more durable build. The idea of needing to be strong, even as a defenseless pup, made her wonder about the harshness of the its natural home. She paused her digging only to sidle further down, moving to a spot that would widen the whole once she resumed digging again.
"I am from the other side as well, but this 'ome of yours, it does not sound very safe to me if you had to fear your sister." She regarded her own siblings with something akin to hate, but never to the point where she would make them fear her, and vice versa. "Is that why you left then, the 'arshness of your family?" That was something she could relate to, at least.
She let the smile hang on her lips, nodding in agreement with the creatures final words. "Oui, digging is good for many things." Burial holes, finding snacks in the ground - she supposed she'd never thought about it, but the simple movement could be put to use for a multitude of reasons.
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</style> Shylome smiled. "My family was good. It's normal for one sister to die if two were born like us. It just means she went to a softer place, one where life is easier."
"But what brought me here were two-legged jackals." By this point, she knew that wolves, or at least all the wolves she'd met, could assume an anthropomorphized form and carefully emphasized the word jackals to distinguish them from two-legged wolves. "They viewed us as backwards. Thought they were better than us. Put us all in a boat to die out at sea because they didn't have the courage to kill us directly." The inflections slowly detached from her voice. "I lived, but the rest of my clan did not."
"They're up in the stars now," she added, as though to remind herself. "I think they might have guided the wolves in the boat to come pick me up and put me here. I thought this place was very backwards and confusing at first, but it is actually a lot softer than my home. I've even joined a new clan. Well, it's a clan of wolves. A 'pack', they call themselves. Are you in a pack?" [/html]
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"Your normal sounds like it makes for a difficult life, I 'ope that your sister 'as found peace." She kept her tone quiet, and devoid of any real emotion out of respect for the dead, it was the least she could do since the other had been kind enough to respect her dead. She continued digging as she spoke, the body to be buried was tall after all, but spade-like and webbed paws alike had done a thorough job in the excavation; the task was nearly complete. Noticing this, her digging paced slowed its rhythm a bit, there was hardly a rush to get the body in the ground after all, and she enjoyed the unexpected lesson about a foreign land.
Continuing to listen, a disapproving frown tugged at her lips, it was good that the other had found the land safety, but the reasons for the creatures arrival unsettled her just nature. "Hm, I also 'ope that your captors face retribution then. But it is good that you found some fortune 'ere, is it not? I personally 'ave never 'ad a pack to call my own, but I think it is good to find those friends you can call your family, even if they cannot replace them in blood.
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