[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... table_.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> For Sofia; The Trenches. 300+
Though they covered the expanse of the sky as far as he could see, the pale Captain was glad for the thin layer clouds that hung like a protective cloak above him. He didn't want to see the sun, not until he felt he deserved the light it would bring. The lull in the rain had prompted him to get as far away from Crimson Dreams as possible. He needed a break from the familiarity, the reminders in Haven Manor's every room of the things he'd done wrong. He would not really have minded poking around the areas surrounding his home if it had been raining, but running off in some random direction without purpose would not have been nearly as tempting. Today, with one look out the window at the dry sky, he'd bolted out the door, down off the porch, and into the forest with little regard for his destination. Kansas wanted to fly away for a few hours, where he could cause no one any tragedy.
The Sadira panted as he moved south. The air was muggy, holding fast to him like a massive fist. Still, it felt good to be moving so quickly, so aimlessly. After several hours and countless miles, he noticed the land becoming rockier, the grass marred by spots of stones and pebbles; the earth rolled into gentle hills, and he noticed the wind picking up. He must be at a slightly higher altitude. Kansas paused at the crest of a particularly steep rise, gazing around him. The view was breathtaking. There was a lake in the distance, the land sloping in toward the coast in the opposite direction. He sat upon his haunches, losing himself in the beautiful landscape as he breathed the deliciously crisp and new air.
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I'm so sorry for being a slow-face! ): If it doesn't mess with your time line too much, think we could move the date of this up to 8/5? 457 words
South south south and west. Sofia wanted to figure out how far these lands and these packs went. She had found three packs south west of Dahlia de Mai, but though she had searched further west for a week or so, she hadn't stumbled upon a single packland past the grounds of Ani'waya (not that she knew the name of the tribe). So she turned back and decided to treat those packs as a western boundary. The lands east of it were well-populated, and company was a nice thing. She managed to make her way back with minimal difficulty, but she didn't really want to invade another territory at the moment, too stressful if she ran into someone who cared about that. So she veered south, picking her way through the rocky lands. East, then, eventually back towards where the coyotes lived. Maybe she could find Kaena again and talk with her, that had been pleasant.
Sofi passed a few old fishing villages. She stopped at the first one, performing a cursory inspection, but she hadn't found much of anything interesting enough to warrant staying. It still completely baffled her that there were so many human settlements around, and almost all of them abandoned and in states of disarray. There had been so few back where she was from! They spent so much time and effort keeping things repaired.
The sight of a stranger, atop a rise in the distance, drew her paws happily in the slope's direction. It had been a while since she last talked to someone, and the loneliness accumulated from her trip west had gotten grating. She had initially been a bit more wary after her unpleasant encounter with a second coyote in that human city, but she decided just sticking to open spaces more would be enough. The enclosed streets of that place had sort of left her unable to easily turn tail and just get away from him. If this wolf (male, she determined, as she drew closer) had any ill-intentions, she could easily retreat. She was unshifted, after all, and the cancer was still tame enough she could still run.
Close enough to speak, now, though Sofi's gaze and attention was momentarily captured by the view. Gods, this world she would be leaving was so gorgeous.. Her heart twisted inside her, and she felt choked up all of a sudden, which was entirely embarrassing once she slid back into the situation at hand. Blinking to discard the stray tears that had been welling, she continued staring off the edge until she felt composed enough to communicate. A faint smile and a turn of her green gaze: "At the risk of sounding terribly dull, I've gotta say that this view is quite stunning."
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[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... table_.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> No problem darling! 300+
Kansas hadn't spent much time with anyone outside of his pack. He could count the strangers he'd encountered in the past year on one paw. That was primarily because everything he needed was in Crimson Dreams: his closest friends, his lover, his puppies. He had little need to go elsewhere, now especially since Iskata was dead and Firefly seemed to have gone missing. But wanderlust had also never been a bother to him; he was content with staying at home and perhaps roving around the entirety of Crimson Dreams when he needed a break. But now that home was not so pleasant, he felt the need to have his own adventure, of sorts. Ember needed visiting, but he didn't wish for there to be a particular purpose to his small escape from the silent chaos of the Manor. He needed to do this for himself, and for no one else.
He saw the girl approaching over the crest of a smaller knoll, and his heart sunk a little. He wanted to be alone. But, unfortunately for him, Kansas was not one to shoo others away. He couldn't bare to be so rude. But as she drew near, several things about the stranger came to his attention. First, she had an odd scent. It had nothing to do with her origin, whatever that was, or her species—no, this was something entirely different. Kansas puzzled over it for a good two minutes; he continued to stare at her while he tried to come up with an explanation. Then it hit him. She was sick. He didn't know how or why, but in some manner or another, she wasn't physically healthy.
The next thing that made her different from any other stranger he had encountered was that she appeared upset, like she was about to cry. And after she had spoken, she seemed fine. Strange. Lastly, Kansas had the biting feeling that he knew her from somewhere. Something about her eyes and face was familiar. He hoped she wasn't someone he'd met recently; that would be embarassing. The boy shook his head to clear the rambling thoughts he was having, and smiled vaguely. "No, you don't... sound... dull. I think... I mean, it is beautiful." A half a second passed. "I'm sorry, it's just, eh... Do I know you from somewhere? My name is Kansas."
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kansas has such a cute kiritar XDD; 347 words
His question tugged her mind out from the dark places it usually couldn't help but dwell in. That was the benefit of company - they gave you fresh things to think about, time-sensitive questions that she couldn't put off answering, that demanded attention and consideration immediately. Did he know her from somewhere? Well, first off she could establish if she remembered him at all. That was easy enough as there weren't too many options to run through. She was certain she hadn't met him any time recently, since she had left Daddy, because she remembered the faces and names of the handful of other canines she had met since then. Back further into time, she didn't think that he had been anyone from the pack she had lived in with Calypso. That would be weird anyway, considering how long she had spent traveling to get here from there.
And because her memory did not stretch back to the pack where she had been born, that left the scant couple of months Calypso and her had lived in Jaded Shadows. Her memories of most of the wolves from then was very fuzzy. There was Tayui who was the leader and the first person she ever remembered meeting. And then a few other vague, adult forms that were scary and intimidating that she tried to hide from. Puppy-wise there had been Grandma Fatin's litter, but she had never really gotten close to any of them.. Oh! There was also that white boy from Clouded Tears. Sofia's green eyes flitted towards this male's face, studying it. He said his name was Kansas, which actually sounded like it might have been that white kid's name. She wasn't entirely sure, but did not dismiss it as a possibility. "I'm Sofia." The dying girl began. "Were you.. Did you ever live in the pack, um, Clouded Tears? I was a part of Jaded Shadows for a very short time, we might have played as puppies?" A suggestion of a possible explanation for the vague familiarity, which Sofia now felt about him as well.
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[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... table_.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> Aw, thank you! And sorry about the wait.
For a moment he continued to study her, his eyes taking in the shape of her face, the exact color of her eyes, as if this could jar something in his memory to connect her to. He had not met her recently, because he had encountered so few wolves in his adolescent and adult life that it was quite easy to remember all of them. This brought him to the conclusion that, if he had indeed come across her before, it had been before the wildfire. When he'd lived in Storm. The name of his childhood home sent an unexpected shock through his body—he rarely thought of it anymore. It felt strange to go back to it now, seemingly out of the blue, with this sick girl before him.
She spoke her name, which, again, sounded vaguely familiar to him. She also mentioned Jaded Shadows and Clouded Tears, confirming the likelihood that he knew her. They'd lived in the same area at around the same time. Of course he remembered those two packs. He'd met Naniko in Clouded Tears. "No, not Clouded Tears. But I lived near there; I'm from Storm." He absently looked out over the lake, surprised when he could make out the white of its foam as small waves crashed its rocky shore. The white water suddenly roused the mental image of a river, of two adult wolves, one of whom was his sitter, Pilot. And then a little girl, with bright green eyes. "I think we did play as puppies. Your dad was there, and someone I knew named Pilot." Odd, how memory worked. One glance at a distant lake had brought so much back to him.
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never worry about slow, because i am so much worse! 281 words
Oh, right, not Clouded Tears, Storm. Weird, she could have sworn it had been Clouded Tears, but it had been a long time back and such memories of her youth were fuzzy, flexible things. Anyway, he should know, and he said Storm, so that settled the matter. Maybe it was just that her image of Clouded Tears consisted of primarily white wolves, but maybe not. Whatever, it didn't matter. Her faint glimmer of a memory included no recollection of a river; she had seen too many different places, walked too many different river banks to have that old faint imprint of the Yawrah associated with their encounter any longer.
The name Pilot, though, did bring up a vague, fuzzy picture of a wolf. White, too? Maybe. And her dad, of course. At that age she didn't ever go anywhere without him, and often just preferred to hide behind him when they did go places. The reason she even remembered anything about meeting Kansas as a puppy probably had to do with the fact that it was such a rare occurrence for her to be so bold. She didn't ever really do the "playing with other children" thing as a kid, but she had done brief stints of puppy-sitting as a yearling in her old pack. But that was a different sort of situation.
She grinned at him, "Yeah.. I remember now. I recently left my dad, is Pilot around these parts at all?" Not that it mattered all that much, Sofi hadn't been too close to the older male. But the idea of people around here knowing her, even if only so vaguely, was oddly comforting. These were the companions of her childhood.
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Now that Kansas took a moment to think about it, he hadn't played with too many puppies, either. It was probably also his reason that it was possible for him to identify him in his jumble of foggy childhood memories. He'd spent most of his time with his father or with Firefly, but she didn't count—the two had been ageless in the little world they'd shared only between each other. Even so, Kansas couldn't remember the details of their meeting. He just recognized her eyes, her manner, her scent. He could see that she was puzzling over the information he'd given her. It was understandable for her to be confused about the different packs; there were a lot of pale wolves in Clouded Tears. Odd that he could even remember that.
She mentioned her father, the man who'd accompanied her to the river that day so long ago. The thought of him sent Kansas wondering why she had left him, what she'd been doing in the time since they had last encountered one another. He questioned in his mind if she and her dad had lingered until the wildfire broke out. Perhaps it had just taken her a while to relocate the wolves she'd once lived among.
When Sofia asked about Pilot's whereabouts, Kansas felt an unexpected stab in the chest. He remembered what had happened to the ghostly man, how it had caused Savina to get into a horrible fight with the one who'd hurt him. He didn't know what had happened to Pilot after that. Kansas hesitated, knowing he couldn't tell Sofia everything. "He... he left not too long ago. I don't know where he went," he explained honestly. Kansas let a few seconds pass, then decided to satisfy his curiosity about his long-lost playmate. "So are you here to stay? Or just visiting...?"
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whee, new table.
ic -
Pilot was no longer around. That was a shame, in a vague sort of way. Not like Sofia would have much to stay to him, but it was a point of shared history, and friendships have been borne of less significant commonalities. Oh well, it was nothing worth dwelling after, although she did spare a few moments of thought for the hesitation in Kansas' voice. There was more to the story, but it sounded like a delicate matter he was trying to avoid having to bring up. She had no grounds to press him further, and so Sofi's sparked curiosity would just have to flicker out.
Of course, it wasn't like she was going to be entirely up-front and detailed in her ever answer either. Because technically speaking, the correct answer to his question was "I'm here to die." But that sort of thing only led down paths of conversation she preferred not to walk, and so she softened her words, saying instead a quite polite and still accurate "I plan to stay, for a while. Not sure where, yet. I'm considering joining Inferni. Which pack are you in?" Sofia knew very well the answer, location-wise. He smelled like the lands with that lake, that were east of here. But she had never been told the name of the pack that lived there.
She sort of wondered what the white male's reaction would be to the name of the coyote pack. For having a not-insignificant amount of coyote blood in her veins, she passed for a wolf fairly readily. Hopefully that wouldn't present an issue if she did end up trying to join Inferni, but Kaena had been able to see Sofi's heritage etched in her shape. So even if no one else could tell, at least she would vouch for her. Maybe. That rain-soaked night now seemed a long time ago, faint and foggy with unreality. Well, that was a problem to worry about another day.
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[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... table_.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> pretty! 
She made no response to the news about Pilot, but he didn't think there was much she could say. He didn't know how well she'd known the man, but he assumed that if he'd been important to her, she would have requested more information. It was just as well that she didn't, because he didn't feeling digging up that harrowing memory at the moment.
Kansas did not know girls well, as some men did. He detected no hesitancy when she spoke, so he assumed that what she told him was what she meant. "Inferni...?" he queried, a little surprised. She looked like a wolf; he didn't see anything 'yote about her. But then again, there were all kinds of hybrids around this area, some of whom looked very lupine. Kansas didn't think too highly of Inferni, simply because of its reputation. Or, his perceived idea of it. All he knew was that it was where Hybrid had come from, among other notoriously violent canines. She didn't look or act like someone who'd want to be a part of the intimidating coyote clan. He almost worried about her. "Why there? I mean, I'm just curious and everything." He smiled to show he meant no harm in the question. "I live in Crimson Dreams. It's nice."
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The surprise and concern in his tone caused her to stiffen, but she allowed herself to be soothed slightly by his addendum. Her coyote blood was still a fairly new thing to her; it was not long before she left that Calypso revealed to her the truth of her parentage. But her curiosity and desire for something new had led her to seek out that part of her heritage. It was a new enough thing, though, that she was extra-fearful and particularly sensitive towards even the faintest hint of racism. Just because she didn't look the part didn't mean Inferni couldn't be her home (hopefully, at least, a tiny part of her mind was very worried that that would end up being the case)! Reassuring smile on his part or not, her tone was more cool when she replied. "I'm about a third coyote, and I met a very pleasant member of the clan, Kaena, the other day." Sofi wondered if Kansas would recognize the name. She certainly could have history around these parts, given her age and everything. And he had certainly recognized the name of the coyote clan.
Crimson Dreams. For all the talk of coyotes being vicious, that sounded like the name of a pack that welcomed war. What else could dreaming of crimson mean other than war? She was probably being a bit paranoid now, but goosebumps tickled her spine and it was hard to throw the unsettled feeling of being judged for something beyond her control. Regardless of whether or not it was happening.
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Kansas didn't consider himself prejudiced against coyotes, because he knew there were plenty of perfectly well-mannered coyotes about, just as there were hateful, violent wolves. In fact, one of the most interesting individuals he'd ever met was a man named Arkham, who was mostly coyote from what Kansas had been able to determine. It was Inferni itself that he had an aversion to. Perhaps it didn't matter either way; a bias was a bias. Her cool tones made his heart thud, because he realized immediately that he'd displeased her.
The name "Kaena" was familiar to him only as one of the older members of Inferni; that was just something he knew by default. He had no other information about the woman, so he didn't categorize her as anything but a pleasant individual (what Sofia had described). Kansas nodded a little too vigorously, still smiling slightly. He wondered how he could salvage this conversation. He didn't want her to dislike him. "Oh, okay," he floundered. "J-Just in case it was worrying you, I... uh, I have nothing against coyotes at all. Really, I don't. I know some do, though." He cleared his throat, his eyes shifty. "Just wanted to be sure you know that. I'm sure Inferni is a neat place," the boy finished stupidly.
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