Don't judge a book by it's cover. (open)

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A lone female wolf walked into the terra. She stopped on the highest advantage point she could see around. Ashaka was looking for any other wolves that would try to harm her or fight her. She justwas better off being a loner since most packs did not want to have a lame female in their mists since it looks like her leg would get in the way of her doing things but she had learned to work with the handicap.

Her yellow glowing eyes did not catch any movement over than the other animals that were around but no wolves. She started down to the creek that she had spotted and get a drink for her dry throat. She made it down to the creek, lowering her midnight head to the following creek and lowered her pink tongue to the cool water. She lifted her head to air to check to make sure no one snuck up on her. 

Her nose caught a scent of an dead animal. She turned to the smell and followed it to the dead moose that had died. Some other animals had gotten to it before she did. She checked everything before lowering her head to the meat that she needed to keep going. Ashaka soon finished eating her fill and looked around to make sure that there were no other animals around that would hurt her. She started to walk away to lay low as her body absorbed the nurients from the meat that she had ate to regain her strength before she moved on to another terra. 


Ashaka laid down under an falled tree to rest and make sure that no one could sneak up behind her and surprised her. She placed her black tail on her wet black nose and closed her eyes but kept her ears open to any noise that could be anything that could hurt her.    

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It was a cool autumn morning in the territory. A persistent northern breeze bowed the limbs of trees overhung with red and goldspun branches, shaking loose whatever weakly bonded leaves it could manage and carrying them onwards into the morning mist. The sky was a crisp and clear blue, and completely void of clouds. Despite this, the air was distinctly chilly -- and even with the direct sunlight beating down the wind quickly swept away whatever heat happened to reach the earth.

Djinkka's paws crunched dried and dying leaves at her feet as she walked through the valley, her pale yellow eyes scanning the horizon. The enormous, dark-furred wolf had not yet had her morning meal; she was hungry, and her muscles needed stretching from a long, cramped sleep. She'd spent the night tucked tight into an abandoned burrow that was all too small for her -- and now, her back ached and she had an annoying crick in her neck that just wouldn't go away. She was beginning to tire of this endless game, this wandering, this necessary quest for a place to stay every night. The life of a lone wolf was beginning to lose its appeal -- not that it'd ever had much in the first place.

She didn't have much of a choice, though. Djinkka had tried in the past to connect with other loners moving through Tiayr. To form companionships. To make acquaintances, even. Each attempt had ended in hopeless failure. Djinkka's enormous size was an ever-present barrier. At over 3 feet tall and 125 pounds -- and with a narrow, dark-hued face that seemed only capable of one steely, intimidating expression -- many wolves ran at the sight of her. Others shot insults at her, or challenged her to fights of dominance.

Djinkka was disinterested in fighting. The other wolves were disinterested in friendship.

Turning her snout skyward, the tundra wolf tested the air for the scent of game. She turned her head, using the wind to her advantage to siphon the aroma into her nostrils. Faintly, in the distance, she scented something. Her strong, heavily muscled limbs carried her in the direction of the smell, weaving her through the hills and trees, curiosity and hunger driving her forward.

As she approached the clearing, her brow dropped in disappointment. The moose carcass lay there lamely, half-eaten and already beginning to rot. She was not interested in pursuing already-dead game; the hunt before the kill was what excited her most about feeding. She was about to turn toward the south, to test her luck elsewhere, but a second, distinct scent caught her attention. She inhaled deeply. A wolf.

Djinkka turned her great head until her eyes locked onto Ashaka. She stared at her, full of uncertainty and curiosity. She remained planted where she was, trying as best as she could to look nonthreatening. This was nearly impossible. Still, something inside her hoped that the other female would not run off so quickly. She wanted one chance -- just one chance to prove that she wasn't some sort of hulking, terrifying beast. Looking thoughtfully at the curled-up Ashaka, she wondered at the likelihood.

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The smaller female had perked up when her sensitive nose picked up a scent of the another wolf near her. She opened her yellow eyes and looked around to see the large figure in front of her. She stood up but her disabled leg made it hard for her to back up to safety. She shook her black midnight fur to get rid of the leaves that had stuck to her heavier fur that would keep her warm in the winter.

"Please don't hurt me." She said to the wolf. She thought that it was a male from the color and size of the wolf. She knew the male could hurt her really bad if he wanted to. "The meat is not mine. I just came up on it and nibbled on it. " She said to the thought male. She figured he was after the meat since it was getting harder to hunt since the seasons are changing from fall to winter. Soon, the deep powery snow will soon be there and hunting will be scarce with the animals moving to the winter grounds until the spring thaw.

She was smaller than the other wolf in front of her. They were almost the same color but Ashaka had more black in her fur than the wolf in front of her. She hoped that she could take care of the male and get away from him and see another day without any major injury. She already had her leg but she had learned to move through it and it did not give her any trouble except for when it was really cold in the winter. She thought she had a little bit of weakness in her bones from where she broke it as a young pup when her pack was taken over. She shivered a little bit at the cool wind that blew through the little gulley she was in.

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Djinkka watched as Ashaka rose and began to cower backward. A typical reaction. She didn't blame the smaller female for being frightened -- she knew well enough that, were their roles reversed, she would be retreating as well. Still, she wished they didn't always have to judge her on sight. Sure, she was tall, heavy and muscular. Sure she looked like a terror. That didn't mean she had to act like one.

She moved forward, still trying to be as nonthreatening as possible. Her body lowered a bit as she padded, slowly, towards Ashaka. She was not in a dominant stance. I'm approaching you as an equal, she tried to communicate with her body language. She wasn't sure if she was getting the right message across. Even at her most submissive, to the average wolf she appeared to be a threat.

"I don't want the meat," she spoke, stopping while still a few yards away from the black-furred female. Her voice was a low but discernibly feminine growl. "And I don't want to hurt you." She offered a stiff smile, which looked to be more like a fanged grimace than something that could be counted as reassuring. Poor Djinkka, alone for most of her life, had terrible interpersonal skills, was incredibly awkward in social situations, and was a dreadful conversationalist. But she tried very earnestly at all three.

Sitting down, she continued to stare at Ashaka with interest. The silence was long and painful, and the large female was struggling to find something else to say. What do I say? What do I say? she panicked, though her face betrayed absolutely no emotion. It was like an impenetrable brick wall, motionless and completely opaque. At long last, after an eon's length of embarrassingly awkward silence passed, she decided to jump right into introductions.

"I am Djinkka," she said to Ashaka. The cool wind whipped at her dark fur. "And you are...?"

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Ashaka lifted her head when the female voice came to her ears on the top of her black head. "I am Ashaka." she said to the female. She did not know how to read submissive motions since she really did not get to see them very often. "It is nice to meet you." she said to the female. She still did not know if she could trust the female or not but time would tell her that.

"What are you doing here?" she asked the female. She was just a loner so she did not have a home. She stood up and moved out of the counter so that she could react if she had to. She kept her body as relaxed as she possibly could. She looked beyond the female to see the other larger animals were moving around like they were not there but keeping a safe distance from the wolves that just met up.

Ashaka winced as her leg got caught on a root but tried not to let it show since that would be a sign of weakness and she did not want to show the female that she was weak at all. She lowered her midnight head to the lowest joint of her leg and licked it so that she could try to get the pain away. She knew how to fight with her disabled leg so if the female decided to turn on her then she would be able to defend herself against the female.

She sighed as she shivered again as another gust blew through where they were. She knew if they could stay there the night it would keep them warm because the fallen tree offered protection and four eyes were better then just two. They could help each other until they went different ways if they decided to.

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It is nice to meet you.  Djinkka had never heard those words before. She stood still, her yellow eyes wide with shock, the bewildered expression humorous on her broad and massive face. She was utterly surprised. This female was offering her words of... friendship? So used to watching wolves turn and run from her was she that she was completely at a loss for what to do. Another heavy silence fell over her as she stared blankly, the gears in her mind turning furiously behind her stupid-looking face.

"It... is nice to meet you... too," she finally stammered out, unsure of what else to say. She sounded more frustrated than friendly, but it was a start. Maybe with some practice she would actually be able to think of something intelligent to say. Shifting her weight slightly, she kept her eyes trained closely on Ashaka. She appeared to be staring her down; most wolves would have thought this threatening, and rightfully so, but for Djinkka the behavior was just a result of her hunter's mind. Without much social contact, her instincts were honed most acutely to hunting behavior. Watching prey closely... anticipating its every move... of course she didn't consider Ashaka prey, but the behavior was so natural to her that it truly happened without thought.

It was this attention to detail, this silent but detailed observation that caused her to notice Ashaka's bent foreleg, even before she limped slightly and gave away her weakness. Djinkka's eyes glimmered with intrigue. Her great head moved forward, studying the injury. Her ears twitched atop her head as another breeze came and went. All else was silent.

"I thought I smelled live game," she replied to the black female's question, dismissively. "But I was mistaken. How were you injured?" She asked the question bluntly, tilting her head slightly at Ashaka as she waited for an answer.

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Ashaka watched the female's gaze  to her leg. She figured that question would come up sooner or later. "I broke my leg when I was an young pup and never set it right so it healed the way it is now." she said to the female. "My family's pack was being over taken by another male who wanted to kill the old male's pups. My mother and father were killed." she said in a whisper that barely rose above the wind.

"My siblings and I ran as fast as we could to get safely away from the wolves that killed our parents." she said. "We must have gotten split up because when I broke my leg, I stopped and they were not around me." she said to the female. She felt bad that she was telling the wolf her whole life story but she did not have anyone to talk to for a long time. "I tried to jump over an fallen log but I did not make it and my leg landed on a rotten piece of the log and twisted it until it snapped." she told the female as she raised her head to the wind.

"I learned how to hunt and walk with it so that I could take care of myself since I did not have anyone else around but my mother had been in the process of teaching us to hunt before she was killed so I knew something about hunting but then I had to come up with other plans because of my leg." she said to the female. she was lucky that she had lived this long because most wolves with her injury would have be dead a long time ago since they would not be just as smart of her to keep trying to live for the next day.

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The wind continued to rustle violently as Ashaka spoke, amplifying the cool dampness of the autumn morning. Around the two dark-colored wolves, the trees swayed as though dancing and the paled grasses rippled across the hills. The only sounds were the hollow whoosh of flowing air and Ashaka's voice, which filled the small clearing and Djinkka's open and curious ears.

Djinkka listened intently. She was as enthralled by the sound of the other's voice as much as by the contents of her story. It had been so long since she'd been told a story of any kind; she could just barely remember her mother telling her one, once, when she was very young and had trouble sleeping. That had been a very long time ago, indeed -- back when her sister was still alive. Djinkka remembered, the faded images in her mind accompanied by a dull pang of grief. The memory of her nameless sister seemed to hang around her always, an ever-present burden.

She turned her attention back to Ashaka, her fierce, enthralled gaze constant. As she listened to the female's sad tale, she felt a familiar feeling in her heart -- a sort of painful pulsation. Grief, again? No, this was slightly different. Empathy, perhaps. The more she listened, the more she realized that they were not so different. Both had experienced tragedy. They both were now alone in the world.

"That is a bad thing that happened to you," she said lamely. It was more of a statement than a consolation. "I also lost family when I was young. I never met my father. My sister died. Now I'm on my own." She nodded to conclude that statement, as though to say, But I've come to terms with this. Sort of.

"But I am impressed by your will. Hunting is difficult with two good legs, even." Well, it wasn't difficult for her, specifically -- she could easily overpower anything she managed to catch up to or sneak up on. She was curious to hear about Ashaka's tactics. "How do you compensate for your injury?"

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The coal colored female looked at the midnight colored female. That was something that they had in common. They both lost their families when they were young. Ashaka reached over to nudge the female softly. "We both have the will to live." she said to the female. She shivered slightly at the memory of her past and the cold wind that was nipping at the female's back. She reached over and nudged the female lightly incase the female did not like that.

The female asked about how she got over her disability. "I try to pick animals that I can kill without having to hurt myself." she said to the female. "I have a mind that I can plan out what the outcome I want and what to do to get it." she said but then most wolves had that but it was harder with her leg so she had to come up with some creative ways that she could get the animal that she was going after. "I also don't go after be game because too much of it goes to waste with just one wolf eating on it instead of a pack." she told the female as she bowed her head. She had mostly been living on squirrels, rabbits, fish, and scrapes of leftover meat from other predators after they move on when they are full, which sometimes got her in trouble because the owner of the kill sometimes would come back to have a second helping and did not want her to be eating the meat that they had worked so hard to kill. She did not mind to give it back since she did not kill the animal.

She looked back up at the female and sighed. "No pack wants a lame female in their mists." she said to her. She did feel that she just was not at the right place or right time to be in a pack yet. She was still learning about life. 

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The enormous female flinched as Ashaka nudged her, just from the shock of it. She was not used to bodily contact -- save for the fatal contact she made with game animals. Even as a pup, Djinkka hadn't experienced much of it. Her mother hadn't liked to cuddle her children. Playful tussles with her sister... that was the last time she could remember experiencing friendly touch. A touch of kinship. In this case, it was a touch of camaraderie.

Her form relaxed again, and she gazed at the like-colored she-wolf with what she hoped were kind eyes. It was true. They both did have the will to live. Djinkka might have let the death of her sister crush her; might have waited there forever, wasting away, hoping for her mother to return to the den. But she didn't. And she was stronger for it. "It's important to keep hope," she said thoughtfully. Nothing to live for without hope. Hope that maybe, someday, she could find her place in the grand scheme of things. A place where her strength and size could be put to good, constructive use.

Relaxing still more in the presence of this intriguing and kind she-wolf, Djinkka's body posture grew loose and easy. She listened intently as Ashaka explained her hunting habits. They made sense to her, and she thought they were clever. She wondered aside whether she could have ever adapted so well to a persistent injury. She doubted it. As strong as she was, she was all to easily felled by a strategic blow. All her parts had to be working for her advantages to be truly useful.

"That's not true," she said to Ashaka, her lips dropping into a pensive frown. "Maybe if they didn't know about you first. If they only saw your leg and not you. You're a very... kind wolf, though." She struggled with finding an appropriate complement. "There's more to a pack than using your legs. Maybe you could... learn medicine. Or raise a family," she guessed, unsure about the actual details of pack life. She'd never even spoken to a pack wolf.

"But I know how you feel. Most wolves run the other way when they see me coming," she said. "You're the first one who didn't run off, or try to fight me."

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    Ashaska looked at the female fae in front of her as she offered her choices that she could do in life. "It is not because I did not want to." she said as she told the female the truth. "At first, I thought I had put myself in a bad spot because I could not run away but when you did not growl at me or show your teeth but actually spoke to me, it took me by surprise because I did not know if it was a trick to relax my guard before you did attack." she told the female in the same place of herself.

    She looked up with her glowing yellow eyes to the sky to see the birds up above them. "We are almost sisters." she said in a whisper since she did not know if the female would feel the same way or not since they just met. She liked having someone to talk to and someone to tell her that she actually was doing something right in life. It actually made her feel proud of herself of what she over came.

    "You are special too." she said to the black female. "You may have lost your family but you seem to be a great hunter. Any pack would love to have a hunter like you in it." she said to the female and sighed. "You also are a great listener to someone you just meet and gained her trust that she does not give very easily because of what she has going through." she said to the female with a smile on her maw. It actually hurt to smile because she had not done in it a while because she did not really have anything to smile about since she was mostly by herself.

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Djinkka nodded, sighing quietly. Her warm breath made faint, barely-visible wisps of translucent steam in the morning air. She knew that, had Ashaka not been backed into a corner, she would have run just like the rest. She tried to put that detail out of her mind. Something -- some stroke of luck or fate -- had kept Ashaka there long enough that she could see her true colors. Rough, yes, and more than a bit awkward when it came to social interaction, but of a pure heart nonetheless.

Still, she wished that it didn't have to take fate or luck. She was enjoying the conversation, as difficult as it was for her to think of what to say. If this was what she'd been missing all this time, then she'd certainly been missing a lot. She couldn't put her finger on what, exactly, made the interaction so appealing to her. Perhaps it was the sound of another voice. She'd been listening to her own, growling, lonesome voice for far too long.

"I may be big and mean-looking but I don't pick fights. I'm glad you stayed, in the end. I'm enjoying the company," she said, a little sheepishly. Her large, black ears pricked up as the she-wolf's whisper crossed towards them on the wind. Almost like sisters... she had said. It was true that, despite the size difference, the two wolves looked very similar. They'd had similar pasts as well: full of death, hardship, obstacles. They both had stories to tell. And they both had reasons to keep surviving.

She thought back to her own, real sister, again. So frail, so small. She had been dark-colored, too... and now that she thought of it, she might've looked like Ashaka when she grew up. As she realized this, Djinkka's heart felt burdened with grief once more. If only she hadn't been such a selfish and terrible pup. If only she hadn't eaten all the food, hogged all the attention, and stolen all the warmth. If only she hadn't been so enormous. If only she weren't such a monster.

Feeling uncomfortably emotional, she abruptly changed the subject. "Come, you still look hungry, and I haven't eaten yet. Rotten moose is not a good breakfast. Let's find something else we can kill to eat, this way." She took off, back into the wooded valley, glancing over her shoulder to be sure Ashaka was following.

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        The coal hued fae looked at the back of the larger female. She was still hungry as her stomach growled at the sound of another kill. She started to walk behind the female before she made it to the other wolf's side. "I am used to having small animals since I am mostly when it comes to the kills."  she told the same colored wolf that had become her friend in a very short while.

    She was glad to have another living animal beside her that could help with the killing of larger prey since she did not want to kill a big animal and only eat a small portion then the rest of the animal would go to waste but then the environment would slowly reclaim what she took down but she did not see the point of killing an adult moose when it was just her and no one else.

    Her damaged leg finally gave out on her. It buckled under weight and she fell to the ground. Under her fur, she was red. She did not want to let her friend down but her leg had given all it could for the day without much rest. She slowly stood up but she knew that she had twisted her bent portion of the tower. She winced when she tried to put weight on it but it would have to get used to being walked on. "Sorry." She said to the wolf beside her. She hated to show weakness to anyone since she had so must to be prideful for. She had the will to keep going when most wolves would have thrown in the towel and gave up. She held her head up high and kept going. Learning what most wolves would not take the time to learn about herself.

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Djinkka pushed forward at a steady pace, briefly forgetting Ashaka's injury in her excitement. An anxious expression came across her face, the dull, rolling grumbles of hunger aching in her stomach. She was starving -- she wanted a big kill. A moose or a buck, or something. Alone she could take down just about anything, with varying degrees of effort. But together with another wolf, the possibilities were endless.

"I usually take down big animals when I hunt," she explained, as the other female came up beside her. "Small game is too easy for me to kill. I like to be challenged." She kept her eyes and snout forward, scanning the environment for any sign of movement or whiff of scent. She tried to angle their movement so that the wind would be at their favor. "Since I'm big I do eat a lot. Some does go uneaten, it's true, but when I leave there are usually scavengers around to finish. It doesn't get wasted." Well, sometimes it did. But even when there were no scavengers around, the rotting flesh would eventually seep into the earth and give nutrients back to the soil. It all went full circle, eventually.

With her face forward, the large female didn't realize Ashaka had taken a fall until she heard the thud of her form hitting the earth. She halted her movement and whipped her great head around, yellow eyes wide with surprise. Slowly, as gently as she was able, she padded towards her fallen friend. She gave her a look of concern, coming to a halt at her side, leaning down close to inspect the twisted limb. It did look considerably disjointed; she gave a wince, imagining the pain the smaller she-wolf must be in.

"You don't be sorry. I should be the one sorry," she said solemnly. If she hadn't moved so quickly, perhaps Ashaka's leg might have fared better. Embarrassed about allowing her friend's injury to slip her mind, she rose to full height and looked outward. "Here, let me catch us some food. You sit down and rest." She took a few steps forward, keeping still. Testing the air with her nose and ears. Hoping that some large animal would show itself, so the fun could begin.

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The coaled colored female looked at the sad face of her new found friend. "I would not like to have you do all the work." She said to the same colored female. She knew she was right with the female's size she could take down about anything that she put her mind to it. "I saw a couple of bucks and does since it is their rut season right now." She told the female.

She went back to her place that she was laying when her friend came up on her. She hated not being able to help the female with getting them something to eat  since she woukd be taking in the meat but did not do anything take it down. She sighed as she sat down on her hind parts on the cool ground and prepared to wait a while since she did not know if the deer was still there or not. The deer may have walked off just as soon as they walked in since all that was in their mind was producing the next years fawns.

A fawn did sound good to Ashaka's body. Her stomach growled again before the fae laid down and started to lick her damaged leg. She often wished that she had not made the jump but then again she was glad she did because she would have been dead if the male had gotten a hold of her and her siblings. 'What had happened to her brother and sister? Were they still a live or were they dead?' She sighed as she closed her eyes and waited. 

It was for the first time she did not have to worry about anyone coming up on her because she knew that the other fae would keep her eye on her since she was weakened right now with her damaged leg. Her mind finally was able to shut down and let her go into a very tired sleep.