The Tia’deli Mountain range was part of the northern border of the lands of Acerbus. It was the most obvious landmark that divided the old pack of Salen and the relatively new Airila. As a juvenile, Kodiak had traveled the foot hills of Tia’deli because the mountain was also home to the Kiaou Mines that housed the members of Salen. Kodi was not sure where the new Alpha of Acerbus housed his members, that information he had not gotten out of Meri yet.
What Kodi was doing crossing the well known border then was the question, not where he was. Meridian was back in Acerbus, not quite ready to leave, not a healthy enough place for her to stay. After her stint of being trapped in the mine, Meridian was malnourished, and not strong enough for travel, not yet. Kodiak was determined however to rid her of Acerbus; it had done him well to move on, he believed it would be the best for her as well; whether she was mentally ready or not.
Buy why Shyia? Kamari was just as close, if not easier to travel too than Shyia. The siblings had also had a run-in with the now Alpha of Kamari a long time ago before Zethrox passed away. But that was part of the reason Kodi did not want to go the Haishin pack. The Alpha knew who the siblings were, and where they originated. Since Exodus liked his solidarity, it was unlikely that the Alpha of Airila knew who and where Kodi and his sister came from.
For some unknown reasoning, Kodiak wanted his identity to be a mystery. He did not want to be linked to the fallen pack of Salen in any way. Maybe it was something that rubbed off from his father, which one, Exodus or Atreyu he was not sure. Maybe it was both. He had not ever really though about the similarities between the two wolves that he called ‘Father’, but with all of the empty space in his head at the moment he saw more than just a few.
In Kodiak’s travels with his father, the Atreyu type, he observed the pack from afar. It was one of the life skills Atreyu was able to teach his son. The Alpha seemed forgiving and naïve, very much unlike a few of the other Alphas that ruled Anikira. Meridian was not normal. Kodiak was not normal. They needed a home where their abnormal behaviors would be overlooked, if not by all members of the pack, most importantly the Alpha.
Kodiak continued on through the forest and over the rocky terrain, in hopes of meeting up with the Airila Alpha and asking for acceptance of both he and his sister.
***** words: four fifty-seven muse level: good. notes: vaniel tagged- balls in your court.
Vaniel was back in control. She was in a Pack land. Airlia’s pack land. Toiro was the Alpha. She needed help. She begged Toiro for help. Vaniel repeated these thoughts to herself, to try and make sense of the world around her. Vaniel had tried to kill herself; she had failed. Scout had helped her, had tried to heal her, yet to no avail. Her wounds had healed badly. Her ribs were twisted and broken – she was lucky that they had not punctured a lung. Her cuts on her shoulders and sides were infected. She needed medical treatment.
Vaniel had tried to find help in the pack of Isata, run by the female Alpha, Sapphire, but again, to no avail. Nothing had happened. She had not been helped. So, she had left, she had come to Shyia, where Toiro ruled. Toiro, it transpired, was kind as well as helpful. Seeing the starving Nessa over a freshly-killed deer, he had allowed her to keep it. Nessa was grateful for this, and soon after, Vaniel had taken over.
And now she was found wandering over the terra of, what she hoped was soon to become, her new home. She felt respect and gratitude to Toiro, and would repay him by becoming a loyal member of his pack. Vaniel felt that this as a good enough compromise – the other option was death. Another suicide attempt. The dark thoughts rushed over Vaniel, and her walk slowed. ”Don’t go there, Vaniel!” she told herself sharply, shaking her head. It did her no good to dwell on death. ”Find help first…everything will be okay…” Vaniel mumbled, her amber orbs lowering to the earth. She hated this depression, how it followed her, encircled her with its black cloud….
She snorted and broke into a sudden run, as if she could leave her depression behind her. But of course, it was no good. She broke into hysterical sobs as it clouded her mind with thoughts of ending her life. She didn’t want to actually do it, just…her depression made her feel as if this was the only choice. That and the sudden confusion that came and went, along with the many hours of not knowing who or where she was…
A howl came from her maw – more of a scream than a song. ”Leave me ALONE!” She didn’t care who heard her. She was desperate now. She needed help, and fast. She needed…she needed someone like a teacher, someone to guide her and help her work through her problems…Vaniel stopped suddenly; she scented another wolf on the breeze. A male. She stood there for a few minutes, before deciding to go and meet him. She knew he had heard her scream, but she wasn’t bothered. Maybe he could help her.
He was rehearsing silently what he would say when he met the Alpha of Airila. Hello sir, I uh… He was trying to recall all the hours he had spent with Exodus, learning how to become the future Alpha of Salen, and the proper protocol to meeting and greeting another wolf, whether stranger, friend, or colleague. Good afternoon sir, my name is Kodi. “No.” My name is Kodiak Black, and I have come to uh… It was odd for him to be searching out another wolf, when so much of his time in the past year was spent avoiding them when at all possible.
Kodiak continued to try and work up what he was going to tell the Alpha when there was a voice besides his own invading his head. It was soft and distinctly feminine. The young male paused his advance towards the heart of the territory, ears erect and alert atop his broad head pinpointing in which direction the second voice was projected. He was not sure why he was surprised to find that there was another wolf in the vicinity. This was after all an inhabited territory, not by just a bunch of loners but a pack, and a decent sized one at that.
Maybe this wolf was part of the pack. Maybe he could talk to her first, and introduce himself to her first. That way he would not be as intimidated as if he was talking straight to the Alpha. If they hit it off, she could escort him to where the Alpha would be, that way he would not have to get caught by some uptight scout who took his job too seriously.
With uplifted spirits and a grin on his mug, he picked up his front paw to take the first step towards his new beginning when her painful cry shook him to the core. The first thought that flashed through his mind was she was being chased by an evil monster, and he only knew of one that would even make him weak in the knees; his own flesh and blood!
He raced forward without warning; the pull to rescue a damsel in distress was too much for him to turn away. If Atreyu was here, Kodiak would stop him. This was his sister’s only chance for a normal life, and Atreyu would not ruin it for him and his sibling. If it was not his father tormenting the young female, then no one else in this world could frighten Kodiak away.
Quickly he reached where the female stood and skidded to a stop, leafy debris piling up at the base of his paws. He looked around frantically, searching for the other being that was tormenting the defenseless female, but there was no one. A curious expression marked his face, raising a single brow and furrowing the other. Golden hued eyes fell on the small female, for the first time actually looking at her.
Emaciated was the first word that came to mind. Like Meri, only worse. Her coat was dull and matted. The look on her face was one of despair, as if she was already dead… Kodiak gathered himself, collecting his feet evenly under him, relaxing his muscles through his neck and along his back. Tilting his head to the side and stretching he neck forward he asked softly, “Ma’am…? Can I…help you?”
Kodiak Black was no stranger to oddities; his mother was schizophrenic and often was not normal, his sister inherited some of the same traits, always seeming to get herself into trouble, his father was unexplainably ruthless, and more than once Kodiak had over heard him speaking like someone else was there… Kodi himself was not normal most of the time. He was in no place to judge.
***** words: six thirty. muse level: good. notes: sorry it took me longer than what I said Vani, I ended up starting over from scratch because it was atrocious the first time around.
Vaniel heard him before she saw him. He sounded large, with wide paws, but maybe she was just imagining things. It wouldn’t be the first time. When she did see him at last, is was sweet relief. Finally, someone who cared. He seemed to have run to her, and that made her feel even better. She stood there, waiting for him to say something, aware of her scraggly appearance. She shook out her coat as it would help, and stared at him with her large, amber eyes. Then he spoke. His voice was soft, with a hint of concern. Vaniel’s eyes filled with tears at the sound of his voice, and she stepped forward.
At that moment, she broke down, sobbing and wailing from the pain that was so deep within her. ”I need help,” she moaned in anguish, tears spilling over her beautiful face, creating streaks of black in her matted, dull fur. She hadn’t washed in a while; this was, perhaps, the cleanest she would be in a while, with tear tracks running down her face. They could only clean her fur so much. Vaniel looked to the male, taking deep breathes and trying to calm herself. ”I-I tried to k-kill myself…months ago…” she whimpered, closing her eyes so that more hot tears spattered the ground. The amount of time that had passed had suddenly dawned on the poor femme; she had realized, to an extent, what had happened. ”I think I’m going crazy!” she told the brute, opening her tear-filled orbs to stare at him in desperation.
Vaniel stepped closer, without hesitation. She buried her face into his neck and cried her heart out, afraid only of his reaction. Would he deny her this one comfort, the touch of another? After a few moments, she pulled away, blubbering, ”I’m s-so sorry. I’m just so afraid…” she whispered the last part, her eyes glittering with tears still as she stared up into the brutes’ handsome face. ”I can’t remember where I was…it’s like I’ve been asleep for months, but when I woke up, I was in this territory…” she whispered again, starting to cry weakly once more.
Words;; 359 Muse;; Good Mood;; Afraid, needing comfort.
It was all he had wanted to hear, that she needed help, his help. Though when she said those three little words, he had not expected to feel the way he did. It was as if he regretted moving so fast to aid the broken female. He was not ready to help someone like her… There was no one else hurting her; she was hurting herself. He knew all to well how those battles waging in your head were not as easily quelled as those between another living, breathing animal.
His head instructed his body to move away from her without offering an explanation why, to not look back no matter what she said. But the depleted expression on her face took hold of his heart, which was, in times as normal as this, stronger than his mind, thus keeping his body steadfast. He didn’t dare relax a muscle though, knowing that if he did, his legs would follow his head’s command and walk away.
He stood quiet and still as the female confessed what Kodiak imagined to be a dark, dark secret. He did not know too many wolves, besides himself that had thought, or even attempted a suicide. She was worse off that he thought. His mind was screaming at him to walk away. How could he help her when he could not help himself? He was no stranger to crazy, but could he really handle being around one more wolf that took a toll on his own fragile psyche?
She had stepped towards him rather swiftly, something he was not at all comfortable with. She did admit that she was crazy, what if she decided to rip his throat out? He could not afford to take a step back; that would only lead to more retreating steps… So he leaned as far back as he could without losing his balance, or moving his feet. She was coming at him so fast, she more than likely did not realize what he was trying to do. As she pressed herself into his burly neck his tawny lips wrinkled back exposing his teeth for a brief second; another feeble attempt at rebuttal.
Just as suddenly as she came, her touch washed away. Kodiak straightened himself out of the uncomfortable balancing act immediately, only to find that he was the one missing her touch. Her apology was overwhelming. He had to rectify the situation. He just had to help, in any way he could. It was not his brute strength that could fight away her demons, but his inner strength through several months of the same torment she’d experienced.
Kodiak lurched forward, reaching her in a single stride; cradling her in his chest, wrapping a paw around her lithe body. He recalled just a few days ago he was holding his sister this close, but even she seemed stronger compared to this female. Meri was large like Kodi. This female was half his magnificent size. He craned his neck down and kissed the top of her head with a gentle kiss.
He had not said anything until now, “Shh… Everything will be okay. You will be okay. I promise.” He knew that he could never keep his promise, he had no idea how badly she was affected. “Believe me; I know how you feel… Shh… Don’t cry darlin’. Don’t cry…”
“…it simply shatters…”
***** words: five fifty-nine muse level: fair. notes: wow lots of sorries for this post. took way too long only 'cause I had no muse what-so-ever; it was all spent wanting to create graphics... : /
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