Cold, wet snow fell from the sky, blanketing everything in a soppy, white sheet. Had rain not been mixed in, the view would have been breathtaking, and would require a pause to take in the beauty. But the sleet made everything look bleak. Dead. It gave true meaning to the season; the end of the road. And it matched perfectly the feelings swirling around within the Mackenzie Valley runt as she trudged on. Her coat was completely soaked from her journey, and her beautiful pelt was covered in mud. She looked like she had thrown herself in the Aughgar River, and had only just pulled herself from the raging waters.
That was certainly how Kyra felt. Nobody wanted her. Her entire family had left her, cast her aside. Her sisters were killed by a cougar months ago now, leaving her the only female remaining of her litter. Her mother had killed herself in her father’s lands, choosing death over staying with her only children. Taqqiq had been killed, though Kyra didn’t know how exactly. Tike had pretended to be Taq in order to make a fool out of her, and though they had made up somewhat, it was nowhere near enough to patch up all the wounds of the past. And her father... Vorilye... He had snapped at her. For what reason, exactly? Kyra was going to stay, just as he wanted. But he didn’t want her. He wanted her to go, to leave Tike behind. To leave her only family behind.
The runt choked on a sob, though no tears fell from her eyes. Her cheeks were stained, almost permanently, with tear streaks from the amount of tears she had shed. But no more. Her tearducts were spent, completely dried out. There was no cry left in the pup. She felt...empty. As if her life up until now had meant nothing. She had fought so hard to stay alive, the half-blind runt. But now... What was there to live for? Her father didn’t want her, so she was no longer safe within Acerbus or Kamari... Kamari... The place she had been born and lived for nearly five months of her life... Where was she supposed to go?
Kyra looked up through dull eyes. The Kinath mountain range stood before her in the distance, a barrier she knew she couldn’t overcome. A light sigh slipped from her maw as she slowed to a stop. Her stomach growled irritably, but she ignored it. Hunting was difficult in winter, let alone for a lone pup with no hunting skills to begin with. She knew she would likely faint from hunger soon. Or worse; die from it. Yet she did nothing. There was no fight left in the little pup. The little pup who had once thought herself to be unbreakable. How wrong she had been.
Kyra was nothing short of shattered.
words:: Four-Hundred and Eighty-Six muse:: Rusty tags::Hadrian ooc:: My poor baby </3 Also, she's technically in Kamari (right at the border), but I threw it in the Oriens board to make things easier.
The trek across the mountainside was never an easy one, nor was it something the Mexican wolf enjoyed. He was getting old and could feel it in his bones. Experience had greatly withered his soul and the affects of it were beginning to take its toll on his body. Though he was still not quite six, Hadrian had been through a lot in life. He had fought many battles, taken many lives, and traveled a great distance to earn himself a chance at redemption. And now a Shaman's work was never done.
Unfortunately, it seemed the brute had misjudged his path. It was always harder to tell where you were going once you were inside the heart of the mountains. He had been planning to come out on the border of Tiayr, relatively safe lands for collecting herbs. Instead his paws had brought him mere feet away from the border of Kamari. The change in scent markers was drastic here, that of Kiddo colliding viciously with the one of the Descai alpha. Hadrian knew better than to go poking his nose someplace it did not belong. He wished not for confrontation today and had no intention of jeopardizing his standing with another pack.
Thus he moseyed along, careful to keep close to the mountain's base as he made his way northward. It bothered him greatly that his bad ear was the one facing the foreign lands (foreign in the sense that he had not traveled through them since his early days on Anikira). Flicking it in annoyance, his eyes were constantly pulling to the left, keeping careful watch out for any threat he might have missed. Instead what he found was a very young femme, not quite into adulthood.
"Goodness, young miss. Are you alright?" She looked positively awful, dried mud and who knows what else clinging to her thin frame. There was a hint of salt in the mix as well and it was clear she had been crying. When or for how long were undetermined; it didn't keep the sight of her from pulling on the aging brute's heartstrings though. Though not an experienced one, he was a father. He had a daughter who's entire life he'd missed due to his own ignorance. And now here was a pup who must have been in Nashira's shoes, young, alone, abandoned. At least Nashira had had her mother for the better part of her life. To be in this sort of ill state of care, this little one must have had no one. "Are you here all by yourself?"
For how long Kyra was standing there, staring at the mountains before her, she didn’t know. Time had been funny these past few weeks. Sometimes it moved so fast, she felt as if she’d blinked and the day was gone. Other times it moved slowly, as if she was supposed to cherish every moment. But the runt didn’t cherish anything anymore. What was there to cherish? Her life? Her good eye? The gleaming of the stars at night? What point was there to any of that?
Shattered and broken. That was all that remained of the soul within the Mackenzie Valley pup. She was too young for this; too young to have been through all she had been through. At her age, she should have been sheltered by a pack, learning new skills to make her more useful in her adulthood. Not standing at the foot of some mountains, wondering when her pain would end. Wondering when some light would shine down on her as to what her purpose was. She should have been happy.
Why wasn’t she happy?
A strong scent filled the pup’s nose, and she looked up just in time to see an older standing just a short distance away. His eyes were wide, taking in her ragged appearance. She stared back at him, through lifeless eyes. He asked if she was alright, and she nearly laughed. Could he not see her properly? Did she look alright? She was alive, for the moment. If that equated to ‘alright’, then perhaps she was. But she certainly didn’t feel it. And she didn’t bother to answer his question. It was probably rhetorical anyway. Maybe he wanted to see if she could speak. Or maybe he actually cared.
But what are the chances of that? Kyra thought with a light sigh. Why should this brute be any different than her family, than any other wolf she’d ever met? Despite the concern in his voice, the brute didn’t make an attempt to come closer to her. See? If he had truly cared, he would have rushed forward, to make sure she was truly alright. Instead, he stayed where he was. Frozen.
And then he spoke up again. Kyra’s heart jumped with a painful jolt. “Am I...by myself?” she echoed, her voice raspy from not using it in some time. “Am I alone? Am I all alone?” The runt cast her gaze upwards, choking back a big sob. “I don’t want to be alone...But I’m always alone...Nobody cares about me. Not Mother, not Father, not Tike or Taq or Karima or Tibiki. Only Kyra....All alone.” Kyra turned to the brute, that soulless expression on her face again. “Are you here to end this?”
words:: Four-Hundred and Sixty-Seven muse:: Decent tags::Hadrian ooc:: She needs to be slapped or something XD
