The Journey of a Pack: Alone Part 1

[taimi]

<sub>The sun is up and its ready to give out some heat. Its long, beautiful rays are sticking out. You can try to touch it, but you cannot. Only feel its beautiful heat. The sands were quiet, sitting still until some wind comes and picks it up. But, winds never come. Never. The Sands of Rodorr is always calm, always, but sometimes dangerous. In the nighttime. If you are in the sky, watching the desert, then you will see something. A Red Wolf slowly walking, but each step means an increase in speed. This Red Wolf is alone. She faced many dangerous things and herself, is, too, dangerous. Or that's what the wolves say. Because of her insanity and craziness, wolves say to her that one day, she'll destroy the world. Is that true? Of course not, Earth cannot be destroyed by a little Red Wolf. But, that's what the wolves say... Of Taimi.

'Oh God.' she snarled under her breath as she began to get faster in each step. 'Oh God.' The little Red Wolf panted as she felt the heat on her fur. She's used to the heat, but this is different. Since she is walking far and far away from her home to a Pack, it's tiring. Day and night, she never stopped traveling. She's confident she'll pass the Sands of Rodorr to the Pievunt-An, to stop and take a 3-day rest. She couldn't take this anymore. Taimi looked up to the sun and exploded right away. 'I thought you were gonna help me, Sun! But, no, I have to pass this stupid desert full of shit! Ya, shit!'

Taimi never cursed, to the Sun or anything like that. She only cursed when she was sad, sad about herself and the insults of her craziness. This was truly sad. She was a Red Wolf, she loves the desert. But, the heat turned her wild and crazy. Well, Taimi is crazy but the heat now does more damage.

Taimi howled so loudly, it scared the vultures away, their eyes big and their feathers going out as they flew away from Taimi's howl. Taimi's eyes began to grow small and now the color of red. A red of an angry bull. Her fur was up and frizzy now. Her ears aren't up and perky, her ears are down and down. She began to dig up sand and roar into the hole she made. She ran around, cursing and howling. Foam appeared in her mouth as she was running and was dripping down. Taimi is now crazy.

A rumble came from the desert and the sand boomed as the rumble went on. Sand was in the air. The Sands of Rodorr are angry, not quiet anymore. Taimi didn't stop and ran out of the way, hearing the rumble and the boom. She yowled and felt the sand go up as she ran. Taimi whimpered, 'Oh shit. I shouldn't have done that!' Her blue eyes were now big and her nose twitched as the sand got in her nostrils. 'God, save me!' she roared as she collapsed on the sand, eyes closed.

The sandstorm is coming. To pummel her down. Like when she was a pup when she realized her mother and aunt left her. Now, this was happening again. The same sandstorm, with the swishes and turns.

Alone again.</sub>

[rice]

A Wolf runs before the sandstorm, panting and gasping and coughing. It is an Iranian, a small and lean one with a sand-clotted coat and wild red-rimmed eyes. He is running away, and has been doing so for some time..minutes, hours? He isn't sure which.
He isn't sure how the sandstorm, or he, got here. One minute he is strolling through the desert, feeling the heat. It is pleasant..this is where he came from, and where his parents came from. There are rocks and cactis, and he occasionally catches a lizard and snarfs it down.
The next he is running, running, running, with a hell of sand behind him and his own life is flashing before his eyes. Scenes of snow and of his parents, scenes of forests and lakes and oceans. An entire life of lonely travel behind him, and nothing but death behind. A stupid end, really, but to a stupid life.

Shit, shit, shit.
There is no way out, and all he can do is run until he drops. Then he can lie there and choke on the sand.
A howl rings through the desert, loud and furious. The wolf's ears go back and fear rasps in his throat as he hears it. This is another wolf, and an angry one. It is nearby..in front of him..and there is now nothing but death. Wolves attack him when they find him, because he is small and weak, and knows more than they do. They take his food. They run him into water or snow, or try to rend his throat and claw his eyes.
Now he must choose his method of death. The claws or the sand? Death by nature or death by Wolf? It is not a hard choice, because the Iranian is already exhausted and will soon fall. Fate, that strange god that rules his life, will make the choice for him.
He only hopes that Fate will then do something with the bones, so that he isn't entirely a waste.
It is a decent parting thought. His father would be proud.

Fate cheats him of the death he prefers. The sand catches up with him before he can fall, and the wolf runs blind in it, breathing the stuff and choking on it. Then he barely glimpses something before him and barely halts before he runs into it.
The wind is at his back and he is borne forward by it a few steps. He staggers these, coughing, and stares ahead of him at the wolf in the blowing sand. There is no hope for him now, only a pair of skulls staring at him in his mind.
The Iranian limps forward two steps and falls, his last strength deserting his thin frame. The other falls with him, and blackness approaches. The Iranian laughs to himself.
Trust him to trust to Fate.

Damn you Rice, you are a fool, and the son of a fool. You will die when that other wolf awakes, and there will be nothing you can do about it.
Rice cowered down before the totem. There hadn't been anything he could do. Did he control sand or wind or, heh, other wolves? No. Why was there another wolf in this sandy hell anyway? And besides, he was about to die. Why did the totem have to rub it in.
Kaxtharr, I..
Shut up. The totem..a snake with blue eyes, furious with his charge for being such a dope..flicked its tounge out. I am granting your life one more time, and only because I owed your grandfather. Don't waste it this time, Rice. Wolves aren't meant to have nine freakin' lives.

He awakes inside the last flurries of sand and digs himself out of the shallow grave he was buried in. He shakes himself off and remembers..don't waste it. Don't waste. Waste.
A vague memory of another wolf enters his mind, and he begins to dig. If he wasn't to waste, he'd better start now. A new life and all that.
He was a fool.

[taimi]

<sub>The little Red Wolf still had her eyes shut, hearing the screams of the sandstorm. Hey, maybe this is where I die. Where God doesn't want me. Where no one wants me. Thoughts swirled around in her tiny head as the sandstorm continues on. Yep, this is the end of me and my craziness, a thought came to her. Sand was coming in her nostrils and she coughed, feeling the powerful winds of the sand.

Shit.
Even more sand.
Shit.

As Taimi held on, the sandstorm began to be even more powerful. Her tail and legs were covered with sand, her forehead had some sand on. The sandstorm roared and began to build up its most powerful. The sand was still roaring, but more sand joined in. That comes a sand wave. A big one.

Shit.
Sandstorm is still here.
Shit.

Taimi's paws were crossed and tears were dry now. Tears were streaming down and dried, like the heat drying the river of Egypt. It's already dried. So will she, so will she. Her tail was between her legs and her fur was dirty now. One of her wounds looked worse. An infection. Since the sandstorm is roaring, some sand got in her wound. Now, the blood inside her was yelling like the sandstorm. Taimi, it was nice to know yourself, she thought, Charrus is waiting for me to play tag. Ever wolf will be happy that I'm gone with my insanity. Still there, still there.

Shit.
Looking like a dead cat.
Shit.

This is it. This is where the sand explodes like a volcano waking up from its sleep. The horror. You're lucky you're not one of these wolves. Taimi and Rice. Roar! Bam! Poosh! Roar! Bam! Poosh! The sand under Taimi got up, roaring. It was like a human dancing on a flying carpet. But this flying carpet is angry. It "spit" Taimi from the air. Now little Taimi is in the air, flying like a angel.

Shit.</sub>

[rice]

Pain in the ass, he thinks, but keeps digging in the sand. Like digging for bones. He probably is digging for bones, and just thought he saw a wolf. Or maybe a ghost.
The Iranian digs anyway, because he somehow thinks the totem told him to. Unlikely, since the thing doesn't care for anyone but him and not that much, either. Still, if he wasn't going to waste his life, it seems like he oughtn't waste whatever wolf was out here either. The vultures would appreciate the bones, if nothing else.
Something happens in the ground, and he steps back with his ears flat. It feels like an earthshake, but it's only right here in front of him. Strange..he didn't think that localized quakes were part of his forecast.
But then, neither was the sandstorm. And, of course, neither was things coming out of the ground and flying up in a spray of sand. The sand gets in his eyes and he stops to blink and rub them in his equally gritty fur. He has to be able to see if he's going to fight a ghost..or run from one.
After all, this couldn't be anything but a ghost. Yeah, because wolves didn't just fly up into the sky with sand going everywhere. They didn't make the ground shake. And they didn't land beside him in a puff of dust and have the sandstorm just..stop.

Stop?
Yes, stop. He stares at the wolf, forgetting to be afraid. That was very interesting. He didn't think that most wolves had magic powers. But then, most wolves didn't have snake totems that gave them extra lives and called them fools either.
So maybe she was magic. Or maybe, and more likely, it was a coincidence.

Yes, it was a she-wolf. A Red, with blue eyes and looking pretty strange. The Iranian cowered and flattened his ears, trying to look small. She wasn't too much bigger than he was..she wouldn't try to eat him, would she? Or just attack from ferocity, like some, or decide that he was infringing on her personal space like a Pack wolf. Any of those would be unpleasant and get him a few unwanted scars.
"Don't hurt me! Just...go away!"
He closes his yellow eyes and grits his teeth for the end, hoping she'd leave. After all, he had dug her out of the hole and saved her, and he hadn't left her for dead under the sand. A living grave, right? Never get to Valhalla or anything that way.
Plus, not so pleasant a way to die.

Gah, and there went his rouge thoughts again, wandering willy-nilly. He'd always been told he was damned terrible at concentrating on anything meaningful. That was why he was mateless and a loner, ambling around in the desert and whimpering in front of wolves that weren't much bigger than he was.
"Don't..hurt."
Don't waste his life again. The totem might not give it back this time.

[taimi]

<sub>As the Red Wolf was in the air, thousands of sand flying behind her, her heart stopped. It didn't even beat as she was flying. She felt like she was an angel, a dying angel. Taimi felt like a feather. She wondered what happened. She was hearing a great blast from behind her, feeling wind racing miles and miles per hour. What's happening? Her eyes were still shut, like she could never wake up. The little wolf should wake up, to see what's happening.
And so she did.

'Oh my... I-I'm in a-air?!' she yowled, her body now crashing the Earth miles per hour. Her blue eyes showed fear and her stomach was turning into a big knot. She felt nauseous. Taimi felt the wild heat on her body and she screamed as she fell on the sand. A huge sand wave came from her crash, roaring. Taimi felt her paw crashing, blood spilling out like the juice you pour in the cup. That happened as the sand wave roared.
The sand wave's roar means the sandstorm is done.

Taimi blacked out, deep in the sand. She could hear voices though. She felt the sand rushing down her throat, choking. 'H-he...Help...!' Her paws were stuck out of the sand, twitching a bit. She was suffocating in there. Oh God. Her life was slowly taking away as she still was in the deep, hot sand...

Digging. Someone is digging. Digging her out. Her breaths are shallow, but she felt something on her shoulder. A paw. The digger took her out by her scruff and gently put her on the ground. She opened her blue eyes, knowing she was back in the desert world. The wolf heard a voice. 'Don't hurt me! Just...go away!'

She turned around and saw a small wolf. About the same size as her. An Iranian wolf... she thought and looked at his amber eyes. They were small, but so beautiful. Taimi opened her mouth, gasping. She stood up, trying to touch him but something struck her. Her twisted paw, now covered with blood, is broken. Taimi limped to a small pond, sensing the wolf behind her walking back, his ears down. A he-wolf, she was sure.

She looked at herself in a small pond and gasped. Her fur was covered with so much sand and blood, she felt like a... What's the word I'm looking for? A broken ghost. Taimi whispered, 'Oh shit.' She looked even worse than ever. That sandstorm caused her a lot of damage. Taimi felt a sting in her ear and a bite on her leg, gnawing it. Damage... Tears were streaming downing her hot cheeks and her heart was pounding slowly now. Her heart is broken too, but body pain isn't so painful enough. Emotional and heart pain is.

'T-thank you. For digging me up... Even though I look broken now. And am. You may now... Leave me broken.'</sub>

[rice]

Rice forces himself to open his eyes, still quivering. There, before him, is the wolf that he'd dug up out of the sand. She..yes, she..is standing there, covered in dirt. Rice is surpised by the sight of her, after so long without seeing another wolf, and closes his yellow eyes again promptly. He is afraid.
'T-thank you. For digging me up... Even though I look broken now. And am. You may now... Leave me broken.'[/i]
The Iranian almost jumps at the voice, as quiet as it is. It's a pathetic one, really, and hearing the other wolf speak is the only reason he opens his eyes. She doesn't sound angry or vicious, just..pathetic.
He opens his eyes, just a little, and examines the she-wolf's paws. One of them is injured somehow..probably from falling out of the sky like she did. The other ones are covered in sand. His eyes open a little more, and he takes in the rest of the she-wolf.
She is a Red one, like he saw before. She is sad about something. The Iranian is slightly confused for a moment. He has so little contact with other wolves that he can't think why she might be sad. After all, she was alive and he'd dug her out of the sand, right?
But she isn't threatening at all. He raises his head a little to look the Red Wolf in her blue eyes, and drops his gaze again. He isn't sure exactly what he saw in those..madness, maybe, or just that she was sad. Lonely.
Lonely was a little wierd. The Iranian doesn't usually run with other wolves, and is never lonely really. It just isn't something he feels..but he can understand it. It's sort of a sinking, sad feeling, like when his parents died and he was alone forever.
He opens his mouth to try talking. It's dry and full of sand, but he tries anyway.
"H-how..who..wha?"
He didn't mean to phrase it that way, but it was hard to put a bunch of feelings into words like he once had. He didn't talk much, having never been a 'self-talker' like other wolves got when they were by themselves. Rice liked to be silent. It was harder to be seen and heard if you weren't used to making noise.
He was having a problem with it now. Rice cleared his throat, concentrated, and tried again.
"Why are you sad? Why are you lonely?"
A question would do, even if it was a bit personal. Besides, Rice was curious. He looked up at the she-wolf from his crouching vantage, fear still in his eyes. She was only a small bit bigger than him, and she was crying, but that didn't mean anything. He'd heard that Croc'diles cried before they sprang on their prey.
Rice didn't know any personally, but there was a chance. He didn't want to take any chances with his favorite possession..life. All the other wolves, 'Might is Right', wanted to kill him to prove that they could defeat a small and frightened loner it seemed. Thsi one was probably no different, not at all.
"Don't cry," he said in a Suggestion tone of voice. It was making him nervous..and besides, she was alive and mostly well. There was no reason to cry. Nobody had died, after all. "Please?"

[taimi]

<sub>Taimi cried more, even though the tears were making her wounds sting like the bees point at the bottom. She let out a yowl as her broken paw was bleeding. Pain was in her blue eyes, pausing to hurt her. Taimi was trying to not give up, but her heart beat so fast, she collapsed on the sand, whimpering like a little pup who lost her mother.
'G-go...' was all she said.She thought the wolf might attack her, but he didn't. She stared at him with one eye open, waiting for him to attack. But he didn't. Why didn't he do it? But, when she heard his voice, she gripped herself on the ground with her claws.

'H-how..who..wha?' the Iranian wolf mumbled, the sand and dirt in his mouth. Before Taimi moved, he coughed out the sand and tried again. 'Why are you sad? Why are you lonely?'

That question...It hit her...Sad and lonely... That who she was... Taimi slowly stood up, limping to the he-wolf. She panted as she limped, trying to not show pain. Taimi's ears were down, so ashamed of herself. Her heart was beating fast, her cheeks were turning pink. The she-wolf's beautiful blue eyes showed pain and abuse. From the wolves. From the desert. From her craziness.

Her paw steps were so quiet and soft, it was like a tune. A soft tune, the world can hear. You can see a lot of wounds and scars on her body, but if you can see her heart... It will just have more than wounds and scars. It would have a scream, a howl, a cry. A cry for no more abuse. A cry for no more her. Her fur was dirty and ragged and dusty, but the flaring red was still there. Red like the sun. Taimi's eyes were a deep blue, taking everything in they see.

'Wanna know about my life? I'll tell you all about it. From a lonely pup to a dead friend to here. I'll tell you, he-wolf, I'll tell you. But first... I'll introduce myself. I'm Taimi. I think you heard of me, is that correct?' He has to know me, he just has to. 'Well,' she continue on, 'I'm the one wolves talk about. I'm the crazy wolf with so much insanity, I'm gonna destroy the world.' But... is that true? Will she destroy the world? How would the wolf react to this? Will he be scared or will he abuse her? But... he doesn't look the type of wolf who would hurt a little loner. Probably he's sad and lonely like her...

-short, i know.-</sub>

[rice]

'Wanna know about my life? I'll tell you all about it. From a lonely pup to a dead friend to here. I'll tell you, he-wolf, I'll tell you.'[/i]
Rice watched the she-wolf, slightly uncomfortable. He hadn't really said anything about her life, just asked a question. Well, maybe some wolves had to answer a question with a story. It wasn't that uncommon, although it took a long time that way. Rice was one for frank answers.
His tail moved back and forth, swishing the sand softly. The noise was barely perceptible, but Rice was well-used to picking up the very faintest of sounds. It was a rustle, a faint scratch. Nothing very important.
'I'm Taimi. I think you heard of me, is that correct?'
Rice frowned, his ears flattening very slightly as he searched his memory. The Iranian had been away from other wolves for a very, very long time, so he was a bit lacking in knowledge of recent news, but he hadn't heard of a 'Taimi' before. Maybe she was recently famous. That would explain something.
'I'm the one wolves talk about. I'm the crazy wolf with so much insanity, I'm gonna destroy the world.'[/i]
Oh. The Destroyer of Worlds. He'd heard of a wolf that went by that nickname, although he hadn't believed it at the time. A passing bird had told him..the bird had heard it from a loner, who'd heard it from a pack wolf..
Well, Rice had the grace to look slightly uncomfortable, if nothing else. He was a simple canine to be sure, but even he had some small understanding of manners. He looked down at the sand for a second and frowned, his bright eyes a bit confused.
What did he say to that? Typically he'd say nothing, but it was polite to reply to an announcement of that nature.
"I don't talk much," he mumbled, both as a reply and an explanation of his silence. It wasn't really because he was suprised to meet the famed Destroyer, although he probably should be. Rice just..well, he didn't talk. At all.
Now what?
"I, um..sorry." A deep breath, then try again. "I'm called Rice. I am, I am..a walker-in-desert. Loner." He didn't really do anything in particular. Hunt, sleep, walk. Some days were better than others, some days not good. It just depended on what you made of it. "Please go on. It helps a bit." Maybe if he listened to this other wolf..Taimi..the Destroyer..he'd remember some of the words he'd forgotten.