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for plot prompt #3, petroglyphs! all welcome~
The coyote sat before a brick wall. His legs were crossed, a ratty journal in front of him. Giggle did not like to break his routine often, but he had heard rumors of strange glyphs on some brick walls in Inferni territory. He held no great delusions of himself as a translator or anthropologist, but it couldn't hurt to try and see if he could make some sense of it. Indigo eyes swept over them, taking them in. They appeared simple enough but at the same time daedal, beautiful.
From his back he pulled out a worn book, something he'd taken from the library in Hailfax. It was a once-glossy encyclopedia of sorts, dedicated to North American indigenous peoples. There was one section in particular that had caught his attention, which was why he'd brought it with him: early writings and petroglyphs. Hopefully the small bit of information that chapter provided could shed some light on to the drawings' meanings. Giggle sketched the glyphs into his journal roughly with an old ball point pen, for reference later.
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[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_disorder.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> I have no idea where these walls actually are inside of Inferni. XD Oi.
The coyote had been here nearly three weeks, and she still had yet to thoroughly inspect all of Inferni's territory. Her tail swished as she walked, ambling lazily across their grassy plains. The lands were still foreign to her; she supposed it was the long time she'd spent on their smaller former territory that had made them so familiar, but now they were little more than sooty, charred remnants of what had once been. By the time that place turned green again, she'd long be a pile of bones, well on her way to complete nothingness. The coyote made her way forth, passing a rocky outcropping on her left and keeping to the well-worn trails that her clan-mates had carved through the tall grasses.
Before long, an unfamiliar scent caught her nose, and she picked up the pace, heading for its source. It was a stranger, clearly a member of the clan but unknown to her. The hybrid had become far more social than in her earliest days, where she could remember long periods of months where she did not utter so much as a single friendly word to another living being. Those days were over, and in the lengthy periods of time in which she hadn't encountered a soul on her journeys, she actually found herself wanting canine company, which was a jarring, strange thing to the hybrid. She hadn't particularly enjoyed that feeling, but she knew with age came dependence on others, and in the future she would need her clan to survive. It would be their whim which determined her life.
The hybrid came across a series of derelict walls, remnants of human structures, perhaps, and made her way between a few, heading down where the drop wasn't so steep. The smell was growing stronger as she walked, and before long, there was another coyote within her view—he was not too much of a hybrid, the coyote sang strongly in him—but it was there in his size and stature. He was doing something that immediately drew the ashen canine's attention—drawing. Or writing. Either way, he wielded a pen, and the Optime headed over to him eagerly. "You can write?" she marveled, peering pointedly at the journal in his hands.
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honestly? me neither XD 300+
The hybrid had counted on not being alone for long. Word spread quickly about these sort of things. He looked from his journal to the glyphs, thinking. The book had said indigenous peoples had used the pictures to communicate, being more primitive than humans. It was then logical to assume these were telling some sort of story, though about what he didn't know. It was hard enough for Giggle to understand modern human things, let alone things that might have been done even earlier. And that was assuming these were human -- although he didn't know of anything else that might've done it. They seemed far too old to be luperci.
He didn't sense her coming, for the wind favored her. Giggle was prone to overreaction and this was no exception-- the female spoke and he started, jumping up and spinning on his heel to face her. Beat. His held breath escaped in a quiet whoosh and he relaxed. Indigo eyes swept over the older woman's form. He hadn't met her before-- she was probably new. Had he known exactly who she was, he might've felt more excitement. As it was, his eyes moved back to the journal he had dropped and he nodded slowly. 'Yeah,' the male confirmed, picking up his journal and brushing dirt off of it. 'My dad taught me.'
As usual, no smiles, but his eyes crinkled in a friendly fashion. She had obviously seen her share of life- he studied the multitude of scars across what was once a probably beautiful woman. Her scent carried something a bit familiar, something that made him think of Talitha, who had seemingly disappeared. But he wasn't able to put two and two together without those red eyes so many Inferni members carried. Giggle glanced at the wall next to him and back to her. He wondered if she'd be able to help him. 'My name is Giggle. I haven't seen you before, I don't think,' he added quietly, his eyes curious.
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[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_columbus.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> HAHA. Hooray for vague descriptions of locations! XD
The ashen hybrid had never known anyone who possessed the ability to make those little characters that turned into words before. As it was, she had no idea; she could crudely sketch things and get her point across with pictures, but otherwise, she could only copy a few, short words verbatim and even then it was primitive at best. She had only done that once or twice, even. The hybrid hadn't intended to startle him—he leapt up and whirled on her, and she winced, immediately showing apology across her scarred features. "Sorry," she said. The coyote didn't seem too bothered by her sudden entrance, for he relaxed upon realizing she was a member of Inferni just like he was, and she was glad he wasn't an irritable type.
The silver canine peered curiously at his journal, watching with clear interest as he picked it up from the ground. He spoke, and Kaena nodded eagerly. "That's a good skill to have," she said, the wheels in her mind already spinning out of control. Maybe later, if this coyote had a few good hours of spare time, she could sit down with him and narrate a history of Inferni. They could keep it in the house for anyone to read, and add to it as time went on. She was one of the few who knew mostly everything that had occurred from Inferni's beginnings, and she itched to commit it all to permanence before she passed on into nothingness and her memories went with her.
The hybrid's golden eye studied him for a moment, again taking in his features and storing them away in her head. This was an ally—they were not blood relatives, no, but they were members of the same clan, and that alone was a powerful bond. He spoke, introducing himself, and Kae's single raptor eye followed his gaze to the wall, for the first time noticing the strange characters and pictures decorating its surface.She nodded to his introduction. Giggle was an odd sort of name, though by no stretch was it the most outlandish she'd heard. She offered him a grin, offering her name in kind. "I'm Kaena," she said, unsure of how to characterize her previous existence in Inferni. "I've been gone a while," she decided after a moment. It was fitting, and the truth.
The hybrid's gaze turned to the wall again, and she moved closer, peering closer at the ancient paint. There were what seemed to be animals, and two-legged things she assumed were human. Even she was not old enough to have seen people—her great-grandparents, perhaps, but near ten years on the dirt was not long enough. Some of the animals were familiar; they walked on four legs and had pointed ears and sharp muzzles, and bright painted ochre eyes. The monochrome hybrid realized after a moment that they were meant to depict canines. She peered at these for a moment, brushing it lightly with a finger. It did not smear or smudge; it had survived the test of time, and the light touch of one canine would not damage it further. "What's this?" she asked, not knowing Giggle was just as at a loss for their meaning as she was.
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eek! sorry for the atrocious wait<3
The man tilted his head slightly, offering a slight nod at her apology. 'It's fine.' He reopened his journal and found his place, moving to stand beside the female and study the wall. She complimented his skill and Giggle merely nodded in response, focusing more on the ruins than her. Had he known the thoughts in her head his opinion might've shifted-- only days before he had contemplated the exact thing, writing the history of Inferni. After all, despite his standing, he was an outsider-- genealogically speaking. And it was frustrating to want to give your loyalty to something without comprehension of it's true entity, something he couldn't do without knowing it's stories.
He flickered for a moment between the wall and her before she spoke. Giggle nodded, adding the name along with her face to his memory. Kaena, who had been gone for a while. Indigo eyes studied her. 'So you've lived here before,' he half asked, have commented, not wanting to seem interrogative. He paused, then added: 'Well, nice to meet you.' Trivial, but he was naturally polite. The coyote took his pen and rested it on the book for a moment, before uncapping it. He had lost his place. Annoyedly Gig stuck the end of the pen in his mouth, chewing on it in thought. He was-- ah! There. He had just finished one of the vaguely animal shaped drawings. The text under it was foreign to him and certainly not English. Nevertheless he carefully copied it down as Kaena spoke.
'I don't really know,' he admitted, looking helplessly between his notes and the wall. 'I have these books on ancient writings but they don't have this kind specifically.. judging from the pictures though, I think it's a kind of story?' It made sense to him, anyway, but for all he knew he was completely off base. He took out the book on early writings and held it out for her to look at. Even if she couldn't read, it had pictures in it.
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[html]  No problem at all. <3 I know you must have a lot to do after being gone for a while, so take your time.
The gray hybrid studied her companion for a moment, that single golden eye sizing him up briefly, though she smiled. She was glad his initial spook hadn't put them at on bad terms, then again—it would have been unwise on either coyote's part to allow a mistake so small and simple to come between them. Both of the coyotes were here for the long run, it seemed; Giggle was an unfamiliar face but he smelled completely of Inferni, as if he had been in the clan's ranks for some time. She nodded in response to his question. "For a long time, yes," she replied, her voice its usual rasp. "Same here," she said, a grin across her scarred muzzle. It was always good to meet and know one's clan-mates, and better to be close with them.
The woman watched as the other coyote took out his pen again as if to write. She watched, fascinated and eager to see him create those symbols. She couldn't read the words that he wrote; they were in a strange language. He seemed irritated for a moment, gnawing on the end of the pen, leaving tiny indents in the plastic. He spoke, and the coyote frowned herself, her ears folding back for a minute. She had no idea what the words accompanying the pictures said and her vocabulary in her first language was stunted as it was. The woman took the book in his outstretched hand, settling down to sit with crossed legs a few feet away from him.
"I'm not very good at reading," she admitted. She could manage most words, but she was slow and if there was a strange or technical term, she would have to sound it out like a small child. "Maybe I can find something similar to these," she said, cracking open the book. A smell wafted up from it, faintly musty and definitely stale, but almost sweet. She inhaled it, enjoying the strange, human scent for a minute. She looked at the cover for a minute, flipping through a few pages of foreword text with little information, then stopping, studying the wall with a narrowed eye for a long minute. "Humans did some funny things," she laughed, wondering why one would write on rocks and walls instead of paper. It wasn't like you could take the wall with you if you had to move.
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