Whisper Beach
The young lykoi child was looking for the perfect seashell to add to her small collection of trinkets and castoffs from the sea. She had collected a vast assortment of shells, glass and shark teeth but she didn't believe her collection was complete yet. She wanted to find some shells that she could take to Ryan and have made into a necklace or anklet, which she wasn't sure of yet but she'd seen others were things in their hair and around their necks and paws. She wanted some pretties of her own, other than her ribbons that wrapped around her poor bare tail. The tiny pup attacked another seaweed bed and began to shuffle the waste here and there hoping that she could find just what she wanted soon.
She abandoned the mess of seaweed quickly when she found there was nothing there and instead moved to the low tide to see if any shells had washed upon the shore. She hated having to chase the shells out of the waves, the salty taste left her thirsty and her paws and maw wet and cold. It was getting warmer day by day but was still not enough to actually go playing in the waves. The child's determination for finding the perfect shell would have been amusing to anyone watching but if she caught you laughing boy would you be left with one hell of a headache in the end.
Zana let out a squeal of delight as she finally found the shell she was looking for. Delicately she picked the shell up in her mouth and ran up to the dry portion of the beach to take off the small pouch that she carried with her. Tugging at the strings that went around her neck she loosened it enough to slip the shell inside, hearing it jingle along with the other treasures she'd collected. A happy smile settled across the little girls lips as she shook the sand from her pelt and slipped the pouch back over her neck, wondering what else there was to do with the day now that she'd completed that mission.
It had been a week since his talk, hunt, and subsequent activities with Cwmfen. A few days had gone by before he had gone back to the airport seeking the children he had smelled there before. He was getting hungrier for them. Even though his stress over his dispute with Cwmfen had been resolved, the hunger which it had engendered had not gone away. After discovering that he couldn't find those children, he had lurked around the periphery of the pack called Phoenix Valley for a short time, before heading northwest toward Dahlia again. He didn't want to eat them from Cwmfen's pack, but had only considered this by the time he was almost there. He had decided to turn back, when he found a new scent on the wind. His tail began wagging slowly, and his ears pricked up, though his eyes were unaffected by his delight. He began trotting happily toward the new smell.
It wasn't too long before he found the puppy he'd sensed from the wind. She wasn't completely wolf, he sensed, though she wasn't the same as the coyote puppies he'd recently devoured, either. Coyotes weren't supposed to be messed around with, his mother had said. They were small, too small to hunt larger game, and often didn't like wolves for being bigger and driving them off of superior packlands. Wolves shouldn't befriend them because eventually one species might have to compete with the other for land. Wolves certainly shouldn't love them, because then their offspring would be too small to compete with full-blooded wolves. Brennt's mother certainly would not have understood the situation in the Souls' lands, but for now he only considered her words passively. He had killed four coyotes by himself not too long ago, and eaten two out of the four. So far, he was fine. He wondered if his mother hadn't been wrong? Or perhaps he hadn't understood her meaning? It was very common for him to misunderstand someone's meaning, so he usually kept it in mind as a possibility.
"Hi," he said stupidly as she came into view. She had emerged more quickly than he'd thought, and the predator wasn't yet ready to come out. He had never talked to his prey before, and didn't know what to say. The pressure in his chest was building, he was about to do something bad, he knew, and so he was anxious. He was excited, too, because he knew how good and satisfying it would be. "I'm Brennt," he said, again, his voice so gratingly slow and dumb-sounding that it would be impossible not to notice something awry about the wolf standing before her. His eyes showed that lack of intellect more perfectly even than his voice; a dull and impassive quality about them seemed to suggest emptiness, of the mind, and quite possibly of the soul.
Zana hadn't expected to come tumbling upon another so quickly and when the large wolf spoke to her she crouched down low and sat out of his reach, she didn't want to be sat on again like last time. That funny wolf with the missing bit of tail had not been nice at all. She wrapped her little tail around her paws and stared back at him with thistled orbs. Her voice soft and hesitated as she replied. "Hi.." She studied the large male as he granted her his name. She smiled, relaxing slightly as her tiny fluff of a tail tip beat against her paws.
"I'm Zana!" she stated. She didn't think that anyone who was mean would introduce themselves. She'd also failed to notice the slow dull tone that he spoke with. Everyone was so different and she was so young that things just hadn't taken an effect on the little hybrid yet. She'd lived a very sheltered life inside the lands of Inferni. Anyone else who knew she came from the lands would find that ironic for the lore that came with the clan was nothing but bloodshed and violence.
She took a step towards the male and asked suddenly. "What cha doing?" She'd dropped the pouch she'd been carrying on the ground before her and had leaned down after asking the question to slip it back over her head. Once she'd finally managed to get the pouch in place she grinned at the male and announced. "I've been collecting things!" She wasn't for certain if he was really interested in what she'd been up to but she figured she should tell since she had asked him what he was up to.
I'm figuring Zana can start running about halfway through this?
"I'm hunting," he said, his voice falling dully onto the sand, deadpan and frighteningly empty. The eyes began to consider Zana intensely, as if the gears in the big wolf's mind were desperately trying to work something out about her, but failing. A look of desperation in his eyes gave the appearance that the mind behind them was used to failing when it came to this sort of thing. Brennt was an odd creature, trying perpetually to be something that he wasn't cut out to be, to fit into communities that he wasn't good enough to fit into, socialize with people he wasn't smart enough to socialize with, understand individuals whose complexities were unfathomable even to the wise, and himself being too intellectually distant to know just how hopeless his situation was. As time went on, though, that hopelessness did indeed seep into his thoughts, and gradually became bitterness. Bitterness led to stress, and stress invariably led to the hunger.
"Hunting Zana," he said, more loudly, before the dim quality in his eyes reversed violently and suddenly, the yellow of his eyes flashing, shifting drastically from vacant to wildly, viciously alive. The predator had awoken, and it hungered. The change, however, had been forced. After everything with Cwmfen, Brennt's mental state was not identical to what it had been before, a part of himself wasn't submerged, and though the snarl and bared teeth came on demand, the predator's clarity of thought was not yet with him. Sluggishly, the instincts of the predator began to drown out the words, to rise above them and cast them away, but not quickly enough. The girl would have time to start running. The predator was dismayed, and for a while, Brennt's confusion at the incomplete transition delayed the onset of his other self. Why was this happening? He didn't know, but as he wondered at it, the shift was delayed further.
Frustratedly, Brennt tried to shout, but a feral snarl emerged instead, and as if it were the predator announcing its rule, the predator finally emerged, the beast unfettered who resided within Brennt's personality, the wolf he could have been, would have been, had the population not moved beyond the limitations of his genes long ago. The hunter was unleashed, and now, it wanted to feed. It sought Zana.
The small girl was smart, but she didn't exactly catch the monster's meaning when he began to speak. His slow tone and lifeless manner made the fur on her neck rise without her knowing why. Something inside knew that this was wrong but for some reason she couldn't figure out just what. She blurted out, her words somewhat wavered as she spoke. "You can't.. hunts.. Zanas!" but very quickly she was beginning to realize that yes, infact he could hunt Zana and Zana was about to experience just what it was like to be on the menu.
The small girl backed away step by step, her small paws quivering as she began to watch the seemingly normal wolf turn into something worse than the monster that use to haunt her past. She stumbled over a piece f driftwood as she cried out. Suddenly the clear logic to turn around a run entered her head as the male began to gain speed on her. Screaming out loud the little girl shot down the beach, her small little legs trying desperately to get her back to Inferni inside the safety of the clan that protected her.
A little bit of powerplay, tell me if you want me to change it. Also, I think Jazper can come in at any time.
The predator's lips peeled back grotesquely, arching near the front, over its fangs. Big and brutish though it was, it ran with a frightening quickness, with a sureness and grace that seemed woefully out of place in such a thick and muscular creature. The puppy's legs weren't long enough to outrun the beast, and it bore down on her with merciless and savage intent. The girl swerved, and monster was carried beyond her with its inertia, but what might have been a jerky miss turned into a glide as the hunter corrected for its overshoot and quickly resumed the chase as if nothing had gone wrong.
A cold expertise appeared in its face, a hunter's focus evident in its eyes, a predator's fearsomeness in its twisted expression, jaws slightly parted, fangs bared, ready to close in and make the kill. The little girl was weaving, but the larger creature closed the gaps quickly, and time was swiftly, inexorably running out. The scent of another wolf was in the air beneath the smell of the ocean, and the predator registered this as it closed in, hungrily seeking the tender meat of its tiny prey before anyone else could interfere.
[html]  WC: 500+
Pearly whites shone against the sun in a large yawn. The lazy days were almost here, the sun was high and birds sang all around him in the trees. Spring was here and winter..well that was a memory of the past. Just last spring he had been a pup barely half his age and now he looked out at his second spring, a new start and a sweet beginning was fast approaching. Life had calmed down since his winter drama and now he was free to roam a stunning male once again. The small store bell rang as the door swung shut behind him as he stared a steady jog towards whisper beach.
The morning had been spent with a leisurely walk towards Halifax. The city was a love of the over sized male, always so much to discover and the greenery was an awe inspiring sight the way grass and weeds grew around statues and houses who's owners have been long since dead. The architecture amazed Jazper, every stone and brick was perfectly placed. The humans must have been extremely creative. After all, they had invented music! All the brilliant works he had found and practiced into the night with. Books had taught him of the human musicians, their was of learning. It is written that some humans could even taste the sweet or bitter sound of music and that some could see the colors made. If this where true Jazper felt the music, every soft sweet moment hat grew into a frustrated burst of energy. It was almost magical.
Stepping onto the beach his toes wiggled, sand wedging into the cresses of his feet and clinging to the short sleek hairs. With a deep breath and release his journey was complete. Here he was relaxing to the swish of the waves. Spring and Summer seem to be made or walking along in his beige shorts o the beach. Closing his eyes his ears shifted forward taking in the sounds of waves and birds on the shore. His bliss was rudely interrupted by a pups scream. Bolting off in the direction of the cry His golden orbs narrowed. Coming quickly towards him the familiar scene of the beast chasing a female pup rapidly approached. He did not slow but instead he ran , grabbing the girl into his chest as he crouched low protectively. His upper lip curled back in as he puffed out his upper chest and released a loud snarl. “I thought I told you to pick on someone your own size.” He growled, a deep rumbling echoing within his chest as lowered his head to stop the beast. He gently placed the pup on the sand under him, leaving both hand free to protect her.
If there was one thing he hated was males who thought they owned everything they touched. Even worse, wolves that hurt pups. Add in some gruesome habits and a taste for pup blood and you have your ideal scum bag that was before the massive coal male. Jazper was not someone you would willingly mess with, and if you did you would hope not to run into him again. With his life of training behind him he had the hight, weight and knowledge advantage over most wolves that he fought. It really was too bad this asshole couldn't stay away. "Obviously you haven't learned your lesson yet."
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The predator snarled as it strafed the big wolf, teeth snapping shut just short of the flesh of a furry arm which had fallen over its prey. Working its tongue and mouth distastefully, the beast spat out the black hairs it had inadvertently carried away. The creature was big...too big to fight. But it was desperate to eat the little girl, it had been unable to find this particular brand of sustenance elsewhere, and having found her out here was too good an opportunity to surrender without some sort of resistance. The food belonged to it, and this black wolf was seeking to steal it as it had last time. It was too big to kill, but the predator would see if it couldn't frighten it away.
Backing away, wordless, the inhuman eyes of the monster stared hungrily at the girl at the monster's feet, but knew better than to make a dash for her. Instead, it began its own shift. Strangely, it never thought to do this on its own, but its shifts were always a knee-jerk reaction to seeing creatures larger than itself, or standing on two legs. It couldn't get as big as this individual, but it could get bigger than it was now, and it sensed from the intruder that--though supremely confident--was not as comfortable in his own skin as the creature itself. It was strange how it detected this in every one. To the predator, all of the other wolves it had encountered lacked something crucial, had something missing. They felt less freely than it did, seemed to have the faces of wolves, but not the hearts of wolves, there was something that defied lupinity in their eyes and movements...they weren't quite natural. In neither of his mental states did Brennt have the cognitive ability to appreciate the symmetry of the experience, how--as the wordless predator--he saw them the same way as they saw him: incomplete.
The shift began, but it would take a few minutes. Something in the way the predator held itself suggested balance and precision...hinted at supreme competence, that intimidation or lies or threats would do nothing, that its mind and body were one. Anything its body could do, its mind would have it do. Even now, in mid-shift, it seemed in control of its surroundings. Something calculating resided in those eyes, so unlike the slow and stupid Brennt the black wolf had never met, a look which could be recognized in any hunter who was analyzing prey. The creature did not recognize either of them as 'people,' they were food, prey animals, one who was weak and ideal, and the other, the big buck who made the rare stand to protect the smaller. Wolves hunted animals bigger than they were all the time. Only its lack of an accompanying pack gave the predator pause before its attack.
The tiny girl had closed her eyes and the shrill scream was the only sound she heard. Suddenly she had been pulled up out of harms way, but in the mind of the child it was just another monster that had snatched her up. Wringing and wiggling in the younger male's arms she began to panic. Something was going wrong and she wasn't certain just what. There was a sharp pain in her belly and everything seemed to be moving and changing. She screamed again, not hearing the words of the male as he attempted to place her between his feet to protect her from the four legged beast that had been chasing her down.
The little child was shifting for the first time and though she knew that all luperci learned to shift before their first birthday normally she had no clue how it happened or what it would be like. Witnessing with her own eyes the change overcoming her body as she was locked up by her fear she curled up in the fetal position and just cried. Bitter tear pouring down her cheeks as the shift too effect.
The whole time that the two were spatting above her her body was shifting and slowly and painstakingly becoming that of her optime form. Her wide eyes saw nothing but the monster before her as he too seemed to shift into a bigger badder creature than he had been moments before. As he moved to take a step forward in her direction she didn't realize that the shift had finally finished, but it would only be moments until she did.
Trying to scoot back further under the towering monster that had picked her up the small girl found that she couldn't move efficiently on her own four paws anymore. Stopping to try and see just what was wrong the fear stricken child let out a ear piercing wail as the freakish new form of her hands and feet fell into her field of vision. Today just wasn't Zana's day at all.
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