Iskata had somehow managed to find herway up into the hayloft, more out of hiding from her responsiblities than from the need to be alone. She knew of a few who would bicker and nag at the extremely pregnant female for having even attempted to scale the heights in her current state but right now she really didn't care. She'd flopped down into the warm hay, the crisp summer scent enveloping her as she sighed and let her mind wander towards broken memories of summers past, of fireflies and lightning storms, meadows filled with moonlight and the sound of the ocean in her ears with the rising sun.
The smile seemed to linger on her lips while she fell into a world she couldn't return to with faces that were no more. It was heartache but no one could argue any different with the girl.. she couldn't let those figures from her past go.. no matter how long ago. The ivory pelt of her mother like a ghost in those dreams, the greyscale apothacary and her lost friends and family.. even the midnight pelt of a dear friend she'd never had the chance to apologize to.. She whimpered softly in her sleep, the sweet pain of those lost haunting her dreamworld wasn't enough to bring her to wake and she wouldn't have wanted it to. Where else would she have been able to see them all together again.
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wc453
escape is never the safest path
Ask Iskata, Laruku had told him. The words of the fellow hybrid still plagued him even weeks after they'd been spoken, and no further memories or revelations had arisen since their uttering. He was Maluki Soul, according to Laruku. He was in a pack... Clouded Tears, Jefferson thought it was. Somehow, he'd been right about Cercelee. But how did Laruku know so much about him? How was it that the blind creature could pinpoint who he was in a matter of minutes, when Jefferson himself had struggled with such a concept for years? It wasn't what he wanted to call an identity or mid-life crisis because in all actuality, it was not. Jefferson had endured pain and confusion far worse than this. In the beginning, he had been more than overjoyed to have finally learned something about his identity--though that joy was appropriately stifled--and he had known for a long time since. He had seen Iskata at the harvest festival and wondered what she knew about this Maluki--who was he? What was he like? Or did she know anything at all? Something told him that Laruku had withheld some information, though the Tutela could not fathom why. Jefferson simply needed... to find out more.
He'd been following Iskata's scent for some time, limping a bit more eagerly at a painfully hastened pace, but the sharp pain shooting through his leg were masterfully ignored. He hoped she was alone, for once, so they could speak like they had just days after he had first entered the pack. He saw her a bit more rarely than he wished, only from time to time at this point and only when it had something to do with the pack. Decent, regular conversation with his packmates and leaders were rare... Jefferson had far too many duties to attend to now, with his apprentice to guide and the underling that he was supposed to be watching over, not to mention that what he was normally assigned to at his rank. He'd become a busy businessman for someone who had once been such a determined loner. He followed her scent inside, still aware that she was pregnant but for the moment belittling the idea. Surely what he wanted to discuss wouldn't stress her out or get her sick... those were bad with pregnancy, right? Shit. He assumed she was in the hayloft, but just in case, remained on the ground level at a distance and called out. "Iskata?" His eye shifted from place to place, but then took a moment to stretch out his temporary anxieties that had been building up. The hybrid stood tall again. "We need to talk. It's about someone named Maluki. I was... told you know him."
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She'd been wrapped up warm in her dreams, laughter and job enveloping her as she finally relaxed for once, forgetting the stress and worry of a mother, a packmate and a leader. There was nothing on her mind for once except the hazy world of pictures that lurked within her lucid dreams. The strained warth that crept through the doubledoors of the hayloft as the sunlight cut across her pelt was just enough for her to feel like summer was back again if only for a moment. Her coat had already begun the strange change for the winter months as it thickened and the silver and cream seemed to overtake the strands of gold in her pelt. She'd known few others who went through such a dramatic change in appearance with the seasons but it had never bothered her. She still blended well with the world outside, especially in the morning with the frost nipping at the gold bleached fields.
A voice seemed to dance in her dreams, a memory of her puppyhood so long ago. She'd been older than them, nearing the time when she'd be able to take rank with the rest of the pack and not held back. The loud and happy cries of her brother's children scampering in the meadow had woken her up, she'd remembered a tiny Laruku and Maluki chasing one another in the tall grasses as she watched them with a slight annoyance in her eyes at having been woken, yet she just rolled over again and decided to ignore the boys, hoping sleep would come again. One of the boys had discovered her sunning on the alpha stone and suddenly she was out of breath and glaring face to face with Maluki. In her sleep she called out in annoyance. "Maluki! Get off me!" She might have been his aunt but she was not the aufpasser. Getting up and dumping the youngster in the dirt the older near yearling decided it was time to leave the meadow and move on... but the voice still followed her.
Blinking at the sunshine that was shining through the open door she yawned and realized that the voice wasn't one from her dreams. She rolled over and peered down through the entrance from ground level, realizing who it was as the last words he spoke greeted her. Trouble filled her eyes as she found it more than passing strange that Jefferson had come looking for the owner of one of her dream's memories. She yawned wide and crossed her arms under her chin as she replied slightly sleepily. "Maluki was my newphew, who.. sent you?" she was slightly confused, she hadn't seen Maluki since she'd been a yearling, the last time she'd even really spoke of him was when she'd been bickering and arguing with Laruku about the truth of his past. She hadn't seen nor heard of hide nor hair of any of her brother's family except Colibri as of lately. "His mother was a member of Phoenix Valley, Colibri Soul, though she left not long past..." Iskata had been hurt by the disappearance of her friend but she realized that perhaps Laruku had been right once when he said packmembers came and went like the fogs and mists in the lands of Clouded Tears. Perhaps she'd been lucky that more stayed than drifted in their lands now.
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escape is never the safest path
He hadn't expected such a reaction out of her, but regardless, Jefferson was relieved to find the matriarch there. His senses were finally becoming reliable, and the thought brought a moment's peace to his worries. However, his perplexion only grew when she cried out the unfamiliar name--he guessed in her sleep, by judgment of the slur and spontaneity--and when she gave him the most difficult and troubled look over the edge, his heart sank. She knew who he was, or better yet, who Maluki was... yet she didn't seem so happy about it. The hybrid wasn't sure if he should have been proud of regretful at that very moment. He wondered if this Maluki he'd always wondered about was just the same as Jefferson--a thought that had never crossed his mind--but Jeffers simply couldn't remember. Maybe there was nothing worth speaking about with this Maluki, grandson of the alphess. Maybe there was simply nothing to discuss. The realization somehow hit hard.
Surprisingly, though, Iskata continued. She didn't greet him, and her troubled look didn't disappear. His eye thinned suspiciously, wondering what crimes or whatnot he had committed that he could not remember. 'Maluki, get off me' was interpreted in the worst way possible by the male, and it took an effort to keep his jaw from dropping. His ears, however, did fly backward, and his eye averted. Suddenly, his arm began to hurt. It became an easy, quick distraction. When she mentioned a relation, however, his attention returned. "That's not important," he replied quickly to her question, though his suspicions rose when she became so secretive all of a sudden. "I... I need to know about him. His mother, father, everything. I know he had something to do with a 'Cloudy Tears' or something and his grandmother looked like Cercelee. I need to hear what you know, Iskata. It's important." His green eye returned up to the matriarch, boldly staring her down with a grave look of seriousness and determination.
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The troubled look remained plasted across her face as Jefferson spoke on, she realized that there was no way she was going to distract him from the conversation and even though she had no real clue why he was so demanding on picking her mind the Matriarch sighed and rubbed her eyes before giving in. "Alright.. I don't know why it's so important to you Jefferson but give me a moment and we'll talk." She disappeared from view once more as she tried to gather herself and shake the sleep that had claimed her for the better part of the morning. Finally with a jaw cracking yawn she slowly made her way down the ladder, her breath coming in huffs and puffs as she settled down against the wall of the barn in a pile of hay that had been overflow from the loft above.
Panting slightly as she turned back to the scarred male, slightly puzzled still as to who had sent the male thisway to pick at her mind about memories from so long ago. "Jefferson.. I know Maluki from a long time ago... I'm not certain if I can give you what you want to know.. but I can try." She studied his face, so serious from the gruff relaxed male she'd come to know. The silvery gold woman wanted to know what had changed him so quickly to this mess of a beast before her but if talking to him of the past which she'd once belonged to brought back the fellow she knew then she would.
Picking at the hay she had plopped down into she spoke softly, trying to recall everything she could that would help her friend out. "Maluki Soul was born to Acid, my older half brother and Colibri Soul. He was born into the same pack I was, Clouded Tears. Over the mountain where the wildfire devistated the lands.. there was once a place where the fogs and mists seemed to hang all the time, haunting and yet at the same time it was a comforting place.. like arms were always enveloped around you.. protecting you. Everyone always returned at one point or another.. I don't know how many times I had." She laughed sadly as she thought of Clouded Tears and her past that was no more than memories. ""I think I was about three moons old when I first learned I was an aunt. Our alpha Kiriska had passed on after giving birth. Siondaite, our Aufpasser was dragging my sorry ass back to the packlands after I'd snuck after her visiting her old clan. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on except everyone was upset." She shook her head at the thought. "My older brother Acid and his mate had taken the only surviving puppy, Laruku, on as one of their own..." Her ears were pinned back in discomfort as she struggled to remember her fuzzy fading memories of so long ago. She raised her blue sun shot orbs up to protest the whole thing. "Jefferson, I don't understand.. Why do you care?" She didn't like reliving these memories from a land she could never return to. Laruku banning her from the pack once before had hurt enough, the fact that their world no longer existed now was far worse than the banishment from before.
Her ears were cloudy with pain as she sighed. She already had a feeling who'd sent her own packmember this way and she'd figured she probably deserved it but it didn't hurt none the less. She picked apart the grains from the grass as she shook her head. "Laruku did it didn't he, told you to ask me.." She couldn't figure out why Laruku had told him to come ask her, but when she raised her face back up to look at him it suddenly clicked into place. Why she'd been so distracted by his scent at the borders, why she'd felt like she'd known him before, the damn green that gazed at her said it all as she looked beyond his eyes at the face. "Maluki?" She said with disbelief in her voice. It couldn't be true, things like this just didn't happen did they. A voice in the back of her head laughed at her. She knew they did, she knew she'd taken another name once.. why couldn't Maluki have..
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escape is never the safest path
So there were related after all, he realized. The hybrid dropped his guard to focus on his spiraling thoughts--it was all still coming at him too quickly. His name, his birthplace, his family. His name was connected to too many people. His family was gigantic and so dispersed, it was as if everyone he looked at was potentially bound by blood. His home had once been a happy place, but his hopes in ever finding it were demolished with the burnt grounds so far away. He'd heard about the great fire of Bleeding Souls. He'd hoped that he'd never somehow be a part of it or somehow be involved with it. Jefferson committed many sins in his lifetime, most of which he could not remember... and the last thing he wanted was to have been a part of what destroyed so many lives and memories. He cringed. He knew nothing about his father anymore, but there was a vague relation between he and Iskata. It was enough to make things a little uncomfortable, but Jefferson played it off. He was more interested in other things, to be exact.
But when she mumbled his identity in sudden realization, his eye instantly averted. The hybrid had hoped to keep that under binds for at least the time being, when he could slowly find more out without making a fuss. He didn't know who Maluki was, he just knew he was the same person. Whatever Maluki had done was now on his already waned and busied shoulders. Technically speaking, it could be his end as well. He shrugged his shoulders, emitting a small, weary laugh. "I thought the similarities between Laruku and I were coincidental... Half-brothers bearing similar scars from afar." The words were put out there lightheartedly, but it was obvious that suddenly, this idea of a 'past life' was not settling with the hybrid well. He cleared his throat and shook off the feeling, but never directly responded to her query. "What happened to Colibri? Acid? ...What happened to ..Maluki?" He could not yet identify this Maluki as himself, somehow, even if the knowledge was there. He was used to being Jefferson... not anyone else.
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Iskata wasn't for certain what exactly to think of this ghost that had appeared on her doorstep, no, that she'd invited into her own home without realizing. Laruku must be laughing so, she realized as the thoughts and memories of her own past tumbled around in her mind. She wasnt' really certain where to start. She flicked her ears forward though as the scarred member of her pack seemed to laugh suddenly, a short and worn sound. The words that he granted her made her frown suddenly. Jefferson, no, his name was Maluki, and he was her nephew, almost had the story right.. even if he was being sarcastic. "Laruku isn't your brother. He's my cousin, Kiriska's son. She was my father's sister." She paused a moment before correcting herself. "Well, he's not your blood brother, but he might as well be a brother just the same.. he was raised as your sibling." She went quiet for a moment, forgetting just how tried and twisted their family relations really were.
When he cleared his throat to break off the moment she raised her sun shot eyes up to gaze into his face, one that had seem more troubles that he probably deserved, but one she wished she knew. "Acid.. had risen to become Cere's beta.. one day he just disappeared with Laruku.. and even then he walked out of everyone's life. He left Laruku alone in the middle of nowhere. How he survived I'm not certain, but Acid hasn't shown his face since." She wasn't for certain how she'd even feel if her half brother did appear again. Hell, she'd hate to know how Maluki and Laruku would feel.. though she highly doubted that Laruku would feel a damn thing anymore.
She turned her eyes off to the side as she thought about the other parent in the relationship that had been the start to Maluki's life. "Colibri Soul..." she chuckled softly at the thought of it all, how it was almost funny, yet she doubted in his eyes it would seem thatway. "Colibri actually lived here in Phoenix Valley.. she departed barely a moon's time before you arrived. She's probably still here roaming these lands. She had another litter after yours.. Mew, Melisadra and Haku.. Two of them are alive.. they live in Dahlia de Mai with my daughter Firefly and neice Cercelee." She let her eyes travel off in a somewhat guilty manner as she watched her fingers twist the little pieces of hay into shapeless blobs. "You probably don't even want to think about how you fit into this whole picture.. our family is farspread but quite large."
She lifted those sorrowfilled eyes up to gaze at Maluki as she was faced with the final question, the one she really didn't have an answer for. "Like everyone else, Maluki disappeared into the mist and fog.. you're the only one who can tell us where he's been.." She said softly, her voice filled with apology that she didn't have the real answer to the question that was probably the most important.
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wc325
escape is never the safest path
He was told about his father, his mother, his family. Laruku was the brother he wasn't supposed to have; he wondered why such information had been withheld beforehand, such as the name of his aunt and the like. He should have figured... there were far too many things the two held in common that made their meeting less of a coincidence. The mentioning of his father, Acid, was something of a surprise. Jefferson had expected some important-sounding, mystical background about his father and a majestic death (due to the large lineage Jefferson apparently had), but no. His father simply disappeared... for some reason, the concept sounded familiar, and was thus easily believed. However, the lineage he possessed was more rooted through his mother. "So my mother is still alive and my old man's out there somewhere, if not dead." He snorted. "Wouldn't be surprised if I killed him myself without even knowing. There has been a lot of bloodshed in my day."
He nodded rather unsurprisingly at the mentioning of more names. "I've met Cercelee and Haku by now, both in passing. Haku and I were able to connect the blood, but I didn't know about my background when I met Cercelee a while back." His eye strayed. "I thought she looked familiar to someone I knew... when I mentioned it to Laruku, he figured out he looked like my grandmother, Ceres." His averted eye saddened when she moved to mention that this Maluki had simply drifted off into nowhere--and yet, despite the disappointment, he was not at all alarmed. His whole body seemed to droop then, ears flattening and a subtle frown replacing the habitual scowl. It appeared he had true colors hiding beneath, but this vulnerability was a rare and delicate sight when his guard was lost altogether. His thoughts took over a few moments, but he eventually sighed and raised his gaze to her once more. "When did he--I--disappear? What was I ...like?"
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Iskata wasn't sure how she felt at being the one to be doing all the question answering, it was almost like a repeat of having to explain why someone had to die to a young pup who didn't understand, or where puppies come from. The conversation wasn't embarassing or heart wrenching for her like the others could be, but the aftermath one normally was stuck with felt the same. She raised her eyes up as Jefferson spoke, the questions coming again as she tried to find answered in the middle of what little she actually knew. "Colibri was alive and well last I saw her, a little sad, but she's somewhere around here." She missed his mother, she didn't want to admit it to him, but Colibri had been one of the few wolves that were really left from their old pack that she'd spent time around.. the rest were just as scattered as leaves on an autumn day.
The reaction Jefferson had to his father though made her eyes flash for a moment. She didn't feel like the scarred up newly rediscovered nephew was a threat to her, but it still showed that she didn't know everything. She sighed softly and admitted. "Yes, your father just.. left. He wasn't the first and he wouldn't be the last though." She knew she sounded bitter, but it was the truth. She couldn't really think of many of the youth she'd known that had had a real father figure around for long. She shook her head and smirked at what Jefferson had revealed. "Well, you're not the first with blood on their hands either... If he's alive he'll find hisway back.." She tried to sound reassuringly, she knew the way things had been for those from Clouded Tears. They always come back.. but this wasn't Clouded Tears and she wasn't sure if the same would apply here.
Iskata couldn't help but smile as her nephew tried to explain who he'd met from their family and who he hadn't. Sorrow flashed in her eyes as she thought of her mother, whom Cercelee was like a ghostly image of. She lowered her head a moment as her fingers ran across her belly, trying to push away the pain of losing her mother, the guilt of not even being there.. everything was too much for her.. just when she'd thought she'd buried it all it would returned. In a moment's time she raised her eyes back up to look at Jeffers, his state seemed to reflect how she felt somehow as she spoke softly. "There's more of us around.. if you wanted to meet them. Most weren't around to remember or know of Clouded Tears and our past lives.. but you do have a large family.. even if you don't want us.. we're still around." She ran her fingers through her mane as she tried to answer the last question, though she knew she wasn't the best to answer that. "You left.. shortly after mother died. I was already gone before she'd passed on.. if I'd had a choice I wouldn't have been.." she said wistfully. Of all the things she'd regretted the day she'd approached Ahren on the beach had been the one that had turned her life on end and she wished there was a way to rewrite it all.. but that was then and now.. was too late to think of such.
She smiled though, thinking back on who Maluki was as she answered. "You were.. one of those few.. good guys." She knew it sounded pathedic but it was the truth, then again when you were that young.. there wasn't really much choice.. no one was ever born cruel or evil.. time just changed people. Obviously her nephew had been changed through the times, but so had she. "The question is.. who do you want to be?" she asked honestly as she gazed at the man before her.
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Small optimism was sparked at the thought that his mother was still alive and somehow in the area--most ironic, most convenient, somehow. It was as if fate had simply led him to these lands, perhaps giving him reason to believe in the ghosts he had so long been skeptical and disbelieving about; had his grandmother been there to lead he and Cercelee together that day? Had his father watched over his mother, hoping that mother and her eldest son would somehow be united again one day? It was a bit too sentimental for his liking, yes, but conveniences were running amok. Iskata was learning things about him she probably would have regretted accepting him for; he was no killer any longer, at least under most circumstances. Killing and fighting had been necessary to live on his own. Killing and fighting were only necessary now if the pack needed him to do so... and as loyal and dramatic as that may have sounded, he was okay with it. The brute had always been an ass, but he'd never enjoyed the bloodshed.
"I'm sorry about your mother," he muttered shallowly. When had he ever apologized or anything before? Well, he'd apologized to Lucifer plenty in his head how sorry he was for standing up for that son of a bitch, but that went without saying. That probably... didn't count. "I don't remember her, but I have pictures in mind I can't explain. Seems she was a great thing for this earth." He cleared his throat. Enough of that sappy talk from him. No, it was not as if he didn't want to 'know' his family and friends from so long ago, but was there a point? As she said, he was one of the 'good guys'. This was no more, and they both must have known it. His ears flopped back at the concept immediately, and his eye rolled. The brute had actually been hoping he'd been someone fearful, memorable in his little past life... not a softhearted good guy. Who did he want to be? Not that. "Jefferson," he said, scowling eye looking her straight in the eye. "I am who I am."
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Iskata didn't reply when he spoke up, both their worlds seemed to have crashed to a hault here in this moment and it would take time for them to be rebuilt. She was thinking of what he'd said and who he was and yet she came to no new conclusion of the whole situation. She just shook her head She didn't want his apology and she didn't want him to believe he had to get to know any of them.. or even admit to them who he was or if he was relative or not. She smiled weakly as he granted her his decision and what she already knew. "Everybody changes.. what's happened between then and now.. it doesn't matter." She reenforced the words he'd already said. "Jefferson is who you are now.. no sense changing the world because of something that can't be rewritten anyways." She knew she was a hypocrite eve saying that, so many times she'd wished to rewrite her world.. but it wasn't her life being discussed at the moment so it didn't matter in the long run.
She raised her eyes to look at him as she slowly drew a breath through her teeth. "Sooo..am I allowed to go back to sleep.." she teased. "Or do I have duties and responsiblites you're going to remind me to attend to." She wasn't ending the discussion, but he'd came to the conclusion of what he wanted from this world it seemed and she was fine with his choice. She didn't believe that it really mattered either way.. atleast she knew now what had happened to the nephew from so long ago.. "I'll keep this our secret.. if you want it to remain that." She didn't think that anyone would really care, but there was always a bad seed in every bunch and she didn't feel the need to raise fuss unless it was needed. Right now it wasn't and if Jefferson wanted the world to know who he once was, that was his business not hers. She wasn't even awake enough to want to shout it from the rooftops anyways. There was a warn dry nest of hay calling her name and she wanted to find herway back to it as soon as possible.. until someone else came to gawk at her massive belly atleast.
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I'd say we are done! :3 wc247
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She... was right. He'd known it all along, and the question of a personality shift or a character replacement wasn't the problem here. He was not concerned about being someone he wasn't, changing his name to Maluki, and go frolicking back to the destroyed Clouded Tears looking for a piece of his past. No, that name, those lands were far behind him, burnt away in the great fire for all time and now resting somewhere lost in the ashes. "You know," he said suddenly, even after suggestion to return to her nap. He chuckled lightly, almost sarcastically. "Maybe it's more ironic that I ended up here. Phoenix Valley... I'm just the dead bird who came back." He did climb to his feet, however, and stretched his back.
"The barn's all yours," he muttered, now returning to his grim demeanor as usual. The curiosity, the worries that had possessed his face before were already washed away, scowl again on his face as it always was. He never really had anything to smile about. He had a past now, something he once thought would bring so much joy, but he couldn't even remember it. There was no reason to smile for him yet. "I have thinking to do," he continued, stepping past her towards the exit, but pausing at the doors. "...Thanks, Iskata." He cleared his throat immediately after, somewhat ashamed, and ousted himself quickly from there to retreat elsewhere, back into the nipping cold of the changing seasons.
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