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set in Berwick~  D. 571 words
edited to add: please don't archive this, i intend to finish it with eliza when she's back from hiatus ^^;
Sofia had pressed further west, exploring this area to the best of her ability. She wasn't too sure what exactly she was going to do with herself, now. There were coyotes in this land, which was fascinating, and sort of made her want to stick around and find out more about her father-of-blood's people. But.. the knowledge that at some point, who knew how long from this very moment, she would likely lose the power to walk pressed a sense of urgency against the base of her skull, forcing her to move to move to move while she still could, to take in the sights and scents and sounds and to live, to live ten, fifteen years of life in half as many months. She couldn't do it couldn't do it, and that knowledge was suffocating, oppressive, but she took deep, slow, sweet breaths of air and was able to calm herself until her mind flung itself back to the worn, folded pages in the pockets of her slacks. The cancer, in canines, often spread to the lungs. Sometime, soon, she might not even be able to breathe.
The weather was calm enough at the moment, settled into a steady drip of medium intensity. As the sky wasn't raging, it was a good enough time to press north, to visit the ocean of these parts. So she had, and unknowingly she had wandered into a graveyard. Goosebumps raced up and down her skin, and not at all from the cold. Picking up her pace, she jogged north, east, trying to get out of here, but she had wandered pretty deep into the graveyard, lost in thoughts, before she had noticed her surroundings. Even if she was slower, there was a benefit to being shifted; the cancer was currently only in her forelegs, so she could jog for longer, and even run at full speed for short bursts without hurting hurting hurting worse. Although it was only a matter of time before it metastasized to her back legs. It was inevitable, the papers in her pocket said, although sometimes amputating the infected area helped, but there was no way she was going to going to have anyone saw off both of her forelimbs. She was going to die either way, and she wanted to preserve her dignity as long as she could.
Finally, finally she had broken through. It appeared, though, that as she had done so she had accidentally crossed a pack border. She was a little worried about that - would she get into trouble? But she was just passing through. She couldn't go back the way she came, didn't want to face the graveyard, didn't want to imagine her own name etched into stone after stone after stone. She was on the outskirts of some town, now. There were a surprising amount of human settlements around here; there had only been a few, where Calypso and her had been staying. Thus, the sparse buildings had been highly valued, and only respected members of the loosely gathered, very humanized pack had been honored enough to live in them. Here, it seemed as if all the cities and towns were mostly abandoned. How weird.
Sofia headed eastward, intending to travel in that direction until either leaving the lands she was technically trespassing upon or until she felt safe enough to just head back south without fear of colliding once more with the graveyard.
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Yay for posts! I'm sorry she turned into a wangsty teenager, but sometimes she's sort of immature and emo, sooo~ ;P Let me know if you want anything changed! ~520 words
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Eliza was having a hard time remembering what she had come here for. Logically, she knew that she had come because she hadn't had a choice, because it was the Right Thing to Do to leave, and strike out for someplace better because of the things she believed in. To find someplace to belong, where the way she thought would be welcomed by those around her. Where there was at least some semblance of justice. But in the weeks since she had joined Dahlia de Mai, she had seen precious few of her packmates, and only for very brusque and impersonal interactions. She had been mildly surprised at how lonely this had made her feel, but perhaps it was foolish to be surprised.
Mostly, the female kept to herself, staying in Berwick, not far from the borders she had come in from. She had recently set up a temporary den in the town above the remnants of some old human eatery of some sort. It wasn't where she wanted to stay in the long term, but eventually she had run out of areas in the abandoned settlement to explore and had grown tired of sleeping in a different place each night. Now she had been lingering there alone so long that wandering into the more populated areas of pack territory seemed wrong, almost like an invasion. She had never been isolated quite like this before, and didn't know how to break it. Her days were long and uneventful, generally. It was frustrating to have nothing to do all day but brood on how she couldn't solve her own problems. It was like a constant itch, buzzing just under the skin, unreachable. Constantly annoying and distracting.
The day had started as most had, recently. She left her makeshift home and wandered West of the town borders, hungry enough to try and find some small game to hunt. Just as she was considering shifting out of Optime for the form she was more comfortable hunting in, she caught the scent of a strange wolf. The scent was close enough that the other was clearly within Dahlian lands, but didn’t smell like pack to her. Then again, practically speaking, she had been living a solitary life for such a long while that she wasn’t sure how much of the pack scent she carried anymore, either. Even though she had been given no formal duties by the leaders of her new pack, she was still used to her old duties from the time before she had come to ‘Souls lands, and even pure curiosity alone wouldn’t let her ignore the trespasser’s scent.
She tracked the scent fairly briskly, suddenly more engaged than she had been in anything these past few weeks. A new wolf meant something to do, even if she hadn’t been formally tasked with doing anything in this sort of situation. She was not a Protector anymore, but she had been one once, and though she was young when she had undertaken the task, it was not a skill set one quickly forgot, or a habit one fell out of easily. She jogged toward the strange scent to investigate.
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yer posts are lovely as always, despite your lack of self-confidence! you're off having adventures in japan right now, but i'm posting to you anyway <3 what font did you use in that eliza table, anyway? is pretty, i want. XD 341 words
A white wolf showed up in Sofia's line of sight, and she inwardly sighed. It wasn't that she particularly minded the idea of company, she just wasn't too sure how friendly this encounter would end up being. She was a trespasser, after all, without even the scent of a pack to give her reputation or standing within the lands in the least. The white stranger hadn't spoken yet, but they were rapidly drawing within range of what would unavoidably be dialog. She was nervous because she was caught in the wrong, even though she hadn't really trespassed on purpose and it wasn't like she had anything more ill-intentioned that continuing through the lands until she reached the eastern border. And when nervous, any and all silences dragged on awkwardly and terribly within her head, and it only took a few short seconds before Sofia blurted out a worried defense: "I'm sorry, I don't mean to trespass, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and I ended up on the wrong side of the border."
Sofia was entirely and obviously sincere with her statement. She had no skill at duplicity; it hadn't ever been necessary to cultivate. Calypso had been a loving, devoted, and adoring father; if anything, his only fault was that he had doted on her too much, leaving her unprepared for some of the harsh realities life was throwing at her. And him, likely too crushed by her sudden departure out into the world without him by her side. It would have only hurt him more if he knew, if she had told him why she had to go, or if she hadn't left at all... She missed him more than she could have imagined but it made sense, they had been pretty ridiculously close. She was tempted to just apologize again, turn tail, and leave, but company might be good for her in her present mood. So Sofia decided instead to wait, to see in what way the other female would respond before deciding how to proceed.
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I am back now!  I can give you the font, I have it on my desktop~ :3 ~320 words.
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As Eliza jogged closer to the other female, she almost had second thoughts -- what if this foreign wolf intended to be a threat to the pack? At this point, was she prepared to put her life on the line to defend them? She shook herself out of it quickly, though. She was being over-serious, she knew. The brown-haired wolf didn't look like she could be much older than herself. She certainly didn't look dangerous, and as soon as she got close enough to assure herself of this, the other wolf stuttered out a hurried plea, and Eliza was sure there wasn't much to fear.
Eliza didn't quite believe that the other wolf hadn't known she was trespassing, but it had been a while since that had been formally of her concern and the female didn't seem as though she meant any harm. She wasn't feeling too terribly duty-bound at the moment (when was the last time she'd seen a member of her pack, anyway?), and so she settled on trying to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. "It's all right," she said quietly. Her voice sounded odd and rough to her own ears; it had been a while since she had spoken aloud. "Are you looking for someone? Do you have any business with Dahlia de Mai?" It seemed prudent to at least seem as though she had some authority to be meeting this trespasser. Even though she was not responsible for doing so, it wouldn't do very well to present any weakness to a stranger, no matter how benign they seemed. It was harder than she would have though to forget the kind of thinking imposed on her by her old job.
She stayed standing a respectful distance from the other female, trying to seem nonthreatening but serious. It had been a while since she'd done anything like this, but it was coming back to her. Young, she was, but not without experience.
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seee told you i'd reply by the end of ess lecture! XD
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Sofia wasn't too sure what to think about this other female. She didn't seem to be terribly concerned about the fact that the coyote hybrid was trespassing over Dahlia's borders, but she was acting very formal and business-like with her questions. The questions, too, seemed to disregard her explanation of stumbling onto the lands accidentally. Wellll, maybe it was possible she was heading towards Dahlia to meet someone and had just walked too far or something, so she probably shouldn't be too affronted. But she was definitely a little bit so. "Nah, I don't know anyone here. Dahlia de Mai, you said?" She filed away the name of the pack, filling in the name of this particularly scented land in the gap in her mental map.
"It really was an accident. I don't have a pack right now so I'm just sort of exploring, the graveyard spooked me a little and I hurried through and ended up on your territory, I'm sorry." Sofi was still sort of uneasy with the other female. She couldn't get a handle on what sort of person the white female was, what with the formal questions that didn't really speak on anything real. She supposed the fact that they were asked was something. She was used to being greeted with either aggression or more apathy, not this weird, middle ground. "I'm - I'm Sofia, by the way." Hopefully the other female would reply with a name, and the conversation could move to more pleasant things, things that could drag the young hybrid's mind away from the terrifying morbid thoughts that were currently lurking.
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lol, Sofi doesn't like her over-formal-ness. XD ~530 words.
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Eliza was equally perplexed by the other female's response. She didn't even know on whose lands she was trespassing? "Yes, these are Dahlian lands. I think I know the graveyard you're talking about," she began, but then just as quickly stopped again, tilting her head slightly, considering. It was true she knew of a graveyard near the borders, but whether that was the one the other was talking about was uncertain. Eliza certainly hadn't explored all of the borderlands, and while it was likely that the other was talking about the one she was thinking of, she couldn't be certain. She thought that graveyard was within pack borders, which made the claim of accidental trespass suspicious, but the other wolf didn't seem to be lying or to pose a threat, so she decided to let it lie.
She wondered, idly, why the mottled wolf would have been frightened by the graveyard, assuming it was the one she was familiar with. Eliza had found it to be a rather peaceful place. It seemed rude to ask, so she decided against it, but she did wonder. She listened intently as the female offered her name. Sofia. That was a rather pretty name. She nodded shortly, "I'm Eliza, pleased to meet you," she replied. She felt a bit odd exchanging pleasantries with an intruder, but the phrase came out more out of reflex than anything else. This was a strange case, though. She couldn't recall a time when she had met a trespasser like this while in service to her old pack. Mostly she had dealt with aggressive, threatening wolves, on whom pleasantries would have been wasted and ineffective. That is, if someone managed to breach the pack's defenses far enough to meet Protectors at all, which certainly never happened by accident. But bringing strength or raising the alarm seemed imprudent, and out of her depth, Eliza fell back into her defensive, overly-formal manner, trying to deal with the new situation as comfortably as possible.
"You said you're without a pack?" she asked, curious and uncertain where to progress now that they had introduced themselves. The whole situation was just very weird. "Are you from around here?" She knew there were other packs in the area, and wondered if Sofia might have run into trouble leaving one of them, much as Haku had wondered about her own situation before she formally joined Dahlia de Mai. She wondered quickly if the female might bring someone chasing her onto pack lands, and that could be trouble. Her ears pricked up briefly, checking quickly for any approaching noise, but heard nothing that sounded suspicious to her. Perhaps she was again being overcautious. It wasn't easy for her to be on her guard anyway. At some point she would get used to the way forestry blocked and distorted sound and vision, but as of yet she was still unused to trees fencing everything in, and her senses still felt oddly blunted even this close to Berwick. She shifted slightly on her feet, uncomfortable with meeting the other in her upright form instead of her more comfortable lupus form. At least they were meeting on equal footing, though. That was something, at least.
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So Eliza was the name of the white female. She didn't really sound all that pleased to meet Sofia, but whatever. The hybrid had been trespassing, intentionally or not, so Eliza had every right to mistrust her. "Yeah, I'm not part of any pack right now." Sofia realized immediately that those words plus the situation of running into her at the borders might together make it seem like she was an interested joiner. Which was definitely not the case. Not that she had anything against Dahlia de Mai as a pack (although the flowery scent of the lands did irritate her a little), but Sofia was not in any way ready to tie herself down to a particular territory. She'd probably just be kicked out anyway when she disappeared for weeks at a time, wandering and exploring and adventuring. No, she wasn't giving up that freedom just yet. "I'm not looking to join or anything, though I'm was just exploring nearby."
At this point, Sofi was too new a scent upon these lands in order to really claim that she was from the area. "Nah, I used to live in a pack way, way east of here. My father is from around here, though, I came looking for the pack he grew up in." Unfortunately, she hadn't found it, but only the burnt remnants of the forest where it used to reside. The graveyard, though, which was a large part of the symbolism that dragged her paws forward, still existed. Someday she'd get her own stone there, assuming she had made a good enough friend to cart her corpse a few miles east. "How about you, you been here long?"
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~420 words.
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Eliza glanced at Sofia askance. It had been pretty clear that she didn't intend to join -- she would have stated that intention earlier if it had been the case, or so Eliza would assume. There was something which seemed almost insulting in the way the other denied her interest in Dahlia de Mai, but Eliza couldn't say that she was thrilled with them either, at the moment. "That's fine," she said evenly. "Even if you were, I wouldn't be able to help you." Perhaps it was unwise to admit to her low rank, but it was the truth. While Eliza could see the benefit of trying to appear more important than she really was before knowing if the other female posed a threat to the pack, she could never condone outright lying, especially since no such threat seemed present.
Eliza nodded slowly as the other answered her. It seemed implicit that the unspoken ending to Sofia's narrative was that she had never found the pack she had been searching for. "I'm sorry," the white wolf murmured. She didn't know the other wolf well at all, but there seemed to be a sadness that hung around her, and Eliza didn't enjoy seeing others in pain, regardless of her connection to them. Sofia's brief story reminded Eliza of her own burden to carry, and she looked down and to the side, a moment of private sadness. Perhaps she was being over-sensitive, she thought, but the pain of Ava's death, even months later, was not much dulled. Reminders were everywhere, and usually unintended. It would be silly of her to take issue with this one and not the others.
Sofia spoke again, and Eliza shifted on her feet again, knowing she had been fidgeting a bit too much in her awkwardness but being unable to stop. She met Sofia's gaze before answering, feeling rude for having indulged in self-pity in public. "I've been here for about a month, but don't know the area or the people very well," she answered. Almost as an afterthought, she hurriedly added, "Yet, that is." She was hoping to know the others in her pack better soon, but she was having trouble staying optimistic about her chances. "What do you plan to do now?" It was sort of a personal question to ask, but the worst the other female could do was not answer. Eliza wasn't terribly skilled at making conversation with strangers, so she was mostly at a loss as to what else she should say.
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323 words~
A low rank. Why so defensive of the pack lands, then? Eliza's response to Sofia's trespassing seemed like overkill if she was just a new member. And the scent hung too heavy on the white form for her to be super new anyway. Why a low rank, if you'd been a member for a while? Pack members tended to shift so fluidly that in Sofia's experience, in most cases seniority translated directly to rank. If Eliza was this formal and in line with the rules all the time, why hadn't she risen in the ranks yet? She was half-tempted to press her, knowing full well that it would almost definitely annoy her to be questioned on her low rank. But that seemed interesting.
Eliza's response to Sofia not finding her pack, though, stopped the hybrid. It seemed like some defense dropped, for a moment, and she seemed less formal and more.. fragile? It was strange, and momentary, accompanied by a mumbled comment about how she was sorry Sofi had never found Storm. Strange, she had clearly touched some nerve, but as Eliza hadn't said anything indicating what that nerve was, she had little footing to continue along that path. Or at least with any sort of social tact. She could just blatantly acknowledge the moment that was clearly awkward for Eliza and intended to be overlooked, but, meh.
"I'm mostly just exploring the lands at the moment, there are some really pretty neutral territories around here. You should get out and look around, especially if you don't know the lands much. I might join a pack in a while, but not yet." She shrugged, treating the idea with apathy. Honestly, Sofia was looking forward to having a home again, but the problem was when it came time to find a home it was going to be getting closer to the end. Sofi had to do the traveling first, the exploring while she still could.
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Hai, ily, we should wrap this up soon and do out Eliza/Tokyo thread. Is this an okay end? :3 ~145 words.
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Eliza shifted uncomfortably on her feet, unsure of where to go next. There didn't seem to be much more to say. If Sofia didn't want to join Dahlia de Mai, there wasn't much more for Eliza to do. She didn't need to call anyone, and it seemed like the other wolf was on the brink of heading off on her own again. Eliza had been so lonely recently that she almost wished that the other wolf would stay, but that didn't seem fated, so there was no point in dwelling on it.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck in your travels, then," Eliza said, overly-formal to a fault. "Maybe I'll poke my nose out of pack lands in a bit. Perhaps we'll run into each other again." She sat before the other wolf with an awkward smile, and prepared for Sofia to leave.
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