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http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g210/ ... itable.png);background-position:bottom;background-repeat:no-repeat;">private for luka. grandfather's tears. :3 dated january 1st, their birthdays!
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He had a longing for his homeland, a longing whose origin could both be justified and understood; the lands he meandered now were like black and white with Russia and Europe, where the creature coated in his grayscale pelt had spent his childhood years. He hadn't come to Canada looking for family, looking for a home, looking for acceptance or a place to die... none of that. He had wanted to sail the sea between Europe and North America, and his own curiosity had landed him on the other side of the world, alone and grizzly like he had always been. He didn't mind it. He made maps, he traveled places, he met people. Life went on.
He couldn't say what inspired the knack for cartography he had adopted; it was more of a passtime, something he did when he needed excuses for things. Yes, I am in your packlands. I came to draw a map of it. That was hardly the truth; he was a wanderer at heart and knew it, but refused to admit it. He shamelessly invaded packlands for the sake of seeing the nature there, one of few things he'd come to appreciate over the year he'd been alive. It was his birthday. A year spent on the earth, half of it with his family, half of it by his lonesome. None of it particularly happy.
Nikolai didn't know what he was looking for anymore. He'd never really known to begin with, when he had first stepped apart from the gypsy caravan where he had still been under his mother's care. His father and his brother had already run off somewhere; Nikolai hadn't much cared about that. He'd been the quiet child. As a pup, he'd tended to himself, said little, and instead stared out at the sights instead of the women. Nikolai had wondered from time to time where his father and siblings had gone--he couldn't remember how many of them were absent when he left, as he hadn't paid much attention to his family after a while. His mother had been uninteresting. Her caravan, worse. He didn't know exactly what he'd been looking for when he left, but... all he knew is that he hoped it would be more interesting than home. Thousands of miles away on a different continent altogether, he'd found he'd been disappointed.
Nikolai stepped cautiously, barefoot on ice and feeling the sting of cold against the base of his feet. He wasn't properly dressed; the brute had found a liking for the cold and winter, and though the wind had a bite to it that day, it was nothing he wasn't used to already. He'd drank the night before, having snatched some bottles of wine and alcohol from a small village out in the middle of nowhere he'd passed a few nights back, and they had managed to remain chilled but not frozen in the cloth bag that was slung over his shoulder and across his chest. The ice of the frozen rivers here had stopped him in his trek past--even a slightly buzzed, slightly hungover creature would notice their peculiar indigo hue and stop. He'd been all over the world and back, and never before had he seen water freeze to that color. Perhaps he was more drunk than he thought, snorting to himself. Perhaps he should just have another drink.
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[html] It was one year since his birth. One full year Luka had lived on this planet. Luel as usual trailed by his side, invisible to all those insusceptible to the Otherrealm, commenting idly and advising him. Once, Luel had lived just as Luka does now, but he'd died many years ago and never felt the desire to pass on. A soul that clung to this world, not year ready to find eternal peace--or whatever it was that souls eventually, or hopefully eventually found. This was one thing the yearling had in common with his mother, was the ability to hear the voices of the lost and wandering. Gaze shifted sideways, seeing the pale creature who shared the same fiery eyes as Luka. From his mother and her gypsy band Luka had adopted one set of beliefs and morals, and from Luel, who had first appeared when he was a young boy, he had slowly grown accustomed to another. The spirit never changed, remaining the same as he always remembered, while Luka grew from a lanky, awkward puppy into the nearly full-grown creature he now was. Tall and thin like his father, with a paler coat than his sire, yet reminiscent in markings. But he had his mother's eyes. The very same shade and peculiar way of changing from bright lemon-yellow to deep amber depending on setting and light. It was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine who knew his dear mother and had before gazed into her eyes. Yet they were two very different creatures. The strange shade of the water attracted his notice and Luka moved closer to examine the peculiar indigo ice. It was only a moment later that the ice was forgotten for something else standing on top of it. Luel laughed audible, remarking on the irony before slipping back into the trees, silently observing. Head low, senses alert and at attention he moved swiftly along the water's edge, heading for the creature that stood alone on the ice. "Niko?" he called aloud, almost laughing in shock. The scent on the frozen air told it all. It was Nikolai, his brother. [/html]
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He might have been lost in his thoughts, he wasn't sure. The moment a voice surged through his mind, all other thoughts were immediately dismissed. This was nothing new; the second he was interrupted from his thoughts, all focus was lost altogether. It was why he became so frustrated when interrupted from his cartography, why he grew so furious when people bothered him out of boredom or curiosity. This wasn't the case. His name was thrown into the air, gently almost, and the concept startled him. The beast hadn't met enough faces for them to know, let alone remember, his name. Nikolai turned his shoulder and pointed his duel-hued eyes to the intruder.
His shoulders squared. His back straightened. "Luka," he muttered, as if confirming the name to himself. The beast wanted to apologize, all of a sudden--he had to be wrong; he was seeing things. His brother, out in the middle of nowhere? Just passing by, in the same area, just feet away? How had it happened? And yet, despite such denial, a smile started across his face, and his voice continued. "Vhat... Vhat are you doingk heere?" He took a step forward, shaking his head in awe. "Can't be you... I thought you vere dead," he said, almost laughing.
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