Post by syn on May 31, 2008 16:27:08 GMT -5
Every inch of a shaded animal was tensed. Sinew pulled taught in each leg, every muscle flexed uncomfortably. Even the wolf's ears were pulled tight against his curved skull. The sound of an animal had caused this sudden stop, every movement - even the most primitive form of self preservation; breathing - had stopped. Fear and anxiety pumped through his heart, which beat faster as adrenaline flooded his veins. The sound repeated, the soft hoot of an owl in the distance. Fog surrounded the wolf, dead trees loomed over his smaller body. Nothing about this felt right and the sound of an owl seemed somehow ominous. Once the image of a bird flashed into his mind he settled, however, realizing that it could and would not harm him. His ears perked up and his muscles relaxed throughout his body. A bird of prey was nothing to fear, it was the addition of canine scent into the detectable mixture that now pulled on his nerves.
Syn'ek moved one foot, then another, slowly taking steps closer towards the emanating molecules that enticed his senses. Manners were not forgotten; his tail pulled towards his underside between his hind appendages and his head was as low as it could be without touching the earth. His hackles prickled along his shoulder blades and halfway down his awkward colored spine, but this was not done consciously. The stimulation of even thinking about meeting up with another wolf caused the reaction. The black and white guard hairs were not raised to an aggressive height; it was barely even notable and something he himself did not see. He wondered to himself vaguely if wolves of different packs had different customs in the scene of submission but decided this wasn't something worth thinking of; his stance wasn't aggressive, that was all that mattered.
White socked feet stopped as he stepped into a patch of cracked ground, once holding a mud puddle of some sort, now dry. The night darkened the forest but it didn't dampen his senses. He decided to stop here and wait for a wolf to approach him rather than the other way around. He was sure he was in their territory; a pack's territory. The scents were on the verge of strong. A low growl flitted through his larynx, an anxious tail wagging beneath his body. This entire place made him uncomfortable. Could he really manage to meet up with another wolf with such a sense of dread slipping around him in the form of silvern mist floating around him and catching the trees in its grasp. Had it been more solid and looked less intimidating with moonlight streaming though it he just might have taken a snap at the substance. Syn'ek knew well that it was not alive and that it really would not hurt him, but it hindered what was left of his vision and spooked him.
The wolf shook his somewhat shaggy pelt, bits of dust and debris being projected into the air around him. Once clean, he slowly lowered his hindquarters towards the ground, keeping his tail tucked beneath him. It wasn't fully uncomfortable to sit on his tail, though it was a tad bit annoying. The wolf pulled his feet close to his body and laid his ears back on his head. He offered the world a very small, short howl, deep in pitch but low in volume. This howl was followed by a near silent whimper. He gave his head a violent shake to clear it and try to recover his stoic outer shell, which worked quite well. Silence engulfed the wolf, no more signs of anxiety covered his face and body. He stood in stillness, night and the distant owl his only companions. Someone must show up eventually, came a thought more hope than fact.