Iskata had removed herself from the house once more and was sitting outside on the porch. She could feel the snowflakes that were falling as they touched her nose before disappearing into nothing. The scattered crystals on the wind were just flurries but it was enough to make her realize sooner or later someone was going to come looking for her. She'd been lucky thus far and had been left alone, the silver and gold woman hadn't really even paid much attention to the changing world around her the past few weeks. She knew when someone had brought Zana over in the night to snuggle next to her but she hardly paid attention to the babe. It was wrong but she didn't want to be reminded of what she would never get to experiance, to see her last child grow into a lovely young woman.. she was afraid already because she was beginning to feel the few memories she had of the daughter fading away.
She sneezed as another flake fell upon her nose, shaking her head she covered her muzzle with her forepaws and closed her scarred up eyes. The stitches were beginning to itch like crazy and the woman wanted to rip them all out. Hell would come if she did just that but it was tempting just the same. Her mood was beginning to grow foul as she knew she couldn't do what she wanted. The elder really was beginning to feel like a child who knew they were going to get caught sneaking into the cookie jar.. but she still wanted to itch the scratches so bad. Growling softly the woman sighed, her ears pinned back against her skull as she decided she might as well pull herself up and crawl back to the cottage where she could be mooned over. Some little thought kept flickering in her head that the others liked babying her, but she did NOT require babying and they knew how she felt.
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wc 274 This is my first time using a table. I hope I've done it right.
It was snowing again. It was a pleasant snow, though, nothing like the near blizzard Kasch had arrived in. Since he’d arrived, he’d been staying indoors as much as possible. It seemed there was something disturbing the others, but no one had bothered to explain matters to him. So he just watched and listened quietly, hoping to figure things out for himself.
It got boring, since no one was talking much. He knew he needed to get used to walking in this white mush. So, since there was nothing going on inside and no one had given him anything to do yet, Kasch wrapped an old but thick and warm blanket around himself and went out for a walk.
After half an hour, he began to think that perhaps it had been a foolish idea. No one was out here, no one who wanted to talk anyway. With a sigh, he turned in the direction of the nearest building and hoped there would be something interesting going on there.
Before long, he could see the porch of the cottage. He could also see someone sitting there. The jackal boy pulled his blanket tighter around his shoulders and trotted over. Maybe the person on the porch would feel like talking. The thought of someone new to talk with brought a bit of warmth back into him.
Attention to detail wasn’t one of his strengths. So he didn’t really register the appearance of the woman on the porch. He might have hesitated if he had. Instead, the youngster hopped right up onto the porch and introduced himself cheerfully.
"Hello! I’m new here, my name is Kasch."
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She had been lost in her own thoughts and miseries until the sudden thump and the scent that washed over her, acompanied by the voice of the young one. She flicked her ears back in annoyance because she couldn't see the owner and the youth didn't seem to care. She bared her fangs slightly as she grumbled. "You're either new or old, big deal." She turned her sightless eyes away from the male as she fluffed her coat up against the cold, knowing that it was pointless as winter was finally here and there was no getting beyond the cold unless she went indoors.
She was silent a moment before turning slightly, as though she could still watch him from the corner of her eye though she knew it impossible. Suddenly she asked. "Why are you here though..." She knew that their pack would take the boy in and he would grow to love the lands and himself or he'd leave, but why he'd come here and why he'd chose this spot was more interesting than anything.. because that was all there was at the moment until he made tomorrow into something new.
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Sorry this took so long, the holidays ate me. WC 254
Kasch was a bit surprised for a moment at the scared female’s appearance and at her annoyance with him. He immediately began adopting a submissive posture out of habit. Once he realized what he was doing, he stopped himself before he came off as a pathetic, beaten pup, but maintained enough of the submission to still be respectful of his elder.
Trying his best to look at her without seeming to stare, the youngster observed the female’s scared visage. He wondered how she had become so scared and bitter sounding. He hadn’t been part of the pack long enough to know very much about his fellow pack members. He’d been told just enough to keep him from getting into too much trouble by accident until he could learn the finer points of pack etiquette. Unsure of how to proceed, he stumbled and stuttered his way through as best as he could.
"Um... Do you mean why I’m out here? Or do you mean why I came to the pack? The first one is easier to answer, I just got tired of being cooped up inside and thought I’d explore a little. The second is kind of a long story."
He shuffled nervously. He really didn’t want to discuss his past. It was still rather fresh and painful in his memory. The scared female had sounded pretty annoyed. Perhaps she’d just tell him to go away and wouldn’t bother dragging his pathetic little life story from him. He wanted to think about the future, not the past.
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Iskata could tell that the male had taken to a more submissive posture by the shuffle of his body and yet she couldn't help but fold her ears back against her skull. He should be able to tell that she didn't seen such shows as she couldn't see a damn thing he was doing. She grumbled softly and shifted her weight as she knew by the silence that either he was just staring or he was trying not to. She couldn't help but snap. "It's not polite to stare.." as she rubbed her paws across her muzzle, trying to ignore the lacking manners of the boy as she tried to focus on grooming out her pelt, something that she hadn't tended to in quite a while.
Rubbing one cheek softly she tilted her head towards the voice of the boy as she flicked her tattered ears slightly. "No one forces you to stay in.. You're not a prisoner here." She knew her words were true though they felt like a lie to the woman, to her she did indeed feel like a prisoner at times and she just wanted to escape. She knew she should be so mean to the child but she didn't like surprises like she once had and each and every new packmember was now a surprise. She almost wished that the pack would atleast give the newcomers fair warning of what she was now.
Dragging her tongue across her foreleg she muttered softly. "It's not like I have anywhere to be.. long stories are almost perfect pasttime for one like me." She knew she was being bitter mean old thing but she almost had a right to be now. Perhaps not to the young ones of her pack but she was an elder now, she might as well be what they'd view her as.
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WC 420
The youngster flinched a bit when the elder snapped at him. Well, he supposed he deserved the rebuke about staring. He hadn’t meant to, he’d just been surprised. He flinched again, inwardly this time, when it seemed that he wasn’t going to be able to avoid telling his story. Still, storytelling was about the only talent he’d been able to think of when he’d been asked what he could offer the pack.
Wrapping his blanket-coat a bit tighter around himself, Kasch sat down on the edge of the porch. He hoped this wouldn’t irritate the female further. He stared intently at his mother’s beads while he spoke, trying to draw courage and inspiration from the little blue orbs.
"Well, alright. I guess I’ll have to tell it to someone eventually. My parents had to move to a place close to here before I was born because of a clan dispute. They never told me the details. They came from a much warmer place, almost a desert really, which might be why I was the only pup of my litter to survive.
...It’s also why my mother got sick, I guess.
Kasch paused a moment and cleared his throat, holding back the grief that still threatened to overwhelm him when he remembered his mother’s passing.
”She got really sick. Father tried everything he knew, but nothing helped. In the end she just... faded away. Father didn’t go out for days afterwards. I tried to be helpful because Mother had told me to be brave and help Father when she was gone. I wasn’t very good at hunting yet though, so I got really hungry. I left a part of whatever I got for Father, but he never touched it. When I finally tried to talk to him, he turned on me and started yelling.
“Before long, he went from yelling, to hitting. It got worse and worse until I had to choose between staying home and getting beaten to death by father, or try to find a pack. Mother told me as much as she knew about the packs closest to where we lived. Phonix Valley sounded like my best chance. So, here I am.”
He told the whole story in a tone he hoped sounded adult and not whiney. He wasn’t looking for sympathy; he just wanted to do his best to make a new life here. With a sigh, he adjusted the blanket again and looked back up from the beads to the elder.
”I hope that wasn’t too boring, M’am.”
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Iskata normally wasn't such a bitter soul but lately she had nothing to keep her sanity from fleeting away and all she wanted was to belong again, to feel secure and confident in the world she'd helped to create. Instead she was just waiting for death it seemed, a dog on a leash when she needed to go out and a unneeded guest in a pack that was running effectively without her. She sighed softly as she turned her sightless orbs towards the boy and furrowed her brows. "I'm waiting boy.." she said softly since the youth hadn't answered her yet.
Finally it seemed he was going to speak as she grumbled to herself and settled back to see what the big fuss was all about. Iskata placed her muzzle on her paws and snorted at the story, she wondered how in the hell the children were all told of their little paradise and yet never had the mothers or fathers ever been one to belong to their pack. Had they been drifter who had wanted to stay but had been afraid to approach, had they gawked at the strangeness of the herds and lifestock, perhaps even laughed and on their dying beds seem the wisdom of the strange pack's ways. Iskata wasn't for certain why but she found bitterness if realizing that the pack was beginning to become a thing of fairytales and legends.. and yet they had just begun living.
Iskata rubbed her face along her paws agian, the constant itch of newly healed wounds a constant reminder of what had happened as the boy spoke. She flicked tattered ears back as she muttered. "No.. but I find it strange anyone would send their loved ones here.. even at a dying request. We're all just a bunch of misfits." She wondered just what sort of misfit the boy was that he'd ended up here, even if his own paws had brought him here he still had to be some sort of failure to be thrown in with the lot of them, not that she was going to say anything just yet.
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