The Longest Night [Sanris]

[Deleted]

the sky is grey, the sand is grey, and the ocean is grey.

I feel right at home in this stunning monochrome,

alone in my way.

Every day, every second, solitude stalked her, the one constant in her weary existence as she wandered the jungles of Kal’dyne. It was her new home, the only one she could ever claim as her own, but it still did not feel like she imagined it should. The temperature was mild there – it scarcely felt like the first day of winter, but Athena had been counting the phases of the moon. Tonight, it was a new moon, completely invisible in the night sky. Her shadow stretched long across the hillside, accompanied by the long shadows cast in the scant traces of daylight as the sunset and the longest night of the year began. The trees swayed as the wind rushed through the bare limbs, the last brown leaves in the season carried away on the ocean gales. The gloom settled in around the silver she-wolf in like an old friend.

Temptation lured Athena away from the safety of the jungle time and time again, but no one seemed to notice her brief absences. The loneliness had become overwhelming, and the fae was possessed by a restlessness and longing she could no longer disregard. She felt as if she was going mad with every second spent sitting around, waiting for nothing to happen. Sleep was elusive to her, and when finally attained, her slumber was fitful and the dreams lucid and disturbing. She had not strayed far that evening, for the sunset came early, and she had watched the billowing clouds as they formed in the distance. Across the ocean, the rain was already falling. Soon, the storm would reach their shores. It seemed fitting for the first day of winter. Her limp was slowly subsiding, the pain barely noticeable after four months had crawled by. She was safe there in Valeria’s territory, and yet... It was not enough.

The waif moved with renewed grace, stepping carefully over the wet earth on the ridge. With every passing minute, the trail seemed to disappear, lost as darkness devoured the island. The landscape was black, dismal and lonely, but the night felt alive. The electricity in the air was palpable, causing the fae’s silver fur to stand on end as she hurried down the worn path that wormed along the hill’s top. The rain would make landfall before morning, she predicted, and it would be one hell of a storm. Other beasts seemed to sense the intensity of the coming winter’s night. No birds were singing, nothing was stirring except for the wind whistling through. She could hear her own pulse beating in her ears.  Her heart was throbbing swiftly within her ribcage in anticipation of the mystery she sought.

Valyn was certain to grow as the females of the continent discovered the pack’s unconventional tenets that favored their own. As the day was drawing to its end, the lands seemed filled with prey but void of a robust lupine population. But she was not looking for one of her own tonight. Unconsciously, the smoky-colored female deviated from the path, heading closer to the border. Her primal instincts urged her forward, a fervent hunger that was both exhilarating and unsettling.

She was not certain what it was she was looking for, but she did not intend to spend this dark night alone.

every time I blink I have a tiny dream.

but as bad as I am, I’m proud of the fact

that I'm worse than I seem.

words: 608

tag: @sanris

note: this is a conception thread,

but won't be graphic!

[Deleted]

Sanris bolted down the steep slope of the ridge, tripping as he hit roots and slid on loose leaves, his ears pressed flat to his skull. Above him the trees thrashed wildly, bare limbs clacking and snapping above his head. There was a storm brewing, and judging from the pressure he could feel on the back of his head and between his eyes, it was going to be a hell of a night. He tripped the last of the feet down the incline, veering into the treeline beneath the ridge where the larger trees grew in the less gravelly soil. He was making for some sort of inset in the ridge, a cave- when he seized upon something in a copse. A fallen tree, half-leaning on its fellows. There was a small space below it. 

He only began to have second thoughts when he was underneath, belly pressed into the loamy dirt. He growled to himself in helpless frusteration. He needed to keep pushing on to the land of the pack Kairos. He couldn't afford to be held up by this. First at the river on the edge of the desert, where he had met the other monolith, a great black monster. That had nearly gotten him killed. He calmed his bristling ruff by resolving to find that wolf again- this time, on his playing field. In the meantime, he needed to get to the Kairos pack territory. This had to be the island the Lord Fenris' vassal spoke of, a "paradise of warriors chosen by the divine." He hadn't envisioned it being quite so uncomfortably warm. His thick Northern winter coat had grown in in the few days after his departing the insufferable wastes of the south. It was going to be a problem, he thought sourly, if it was this warm all year round.

Truth be told, he could not care less about the Lord of Kairos' devine mission, or whatever codswallop he believed himself to do and be. He did care very much about the beast's tremendous strength, however. And the maniacal aggression gleaming in his eyes. He shivered again as he thought of the massive brutish face, his teeth bared at the tiny tree in the desert as he spat curses at a god that wasn't present. Kairos was the new Osani. And its time was risng fast. He could not afford to waste time in getting on their good side, and his mouth curved upward in a sly smile as he thought of the rewards he would reap as a founding member, a warrior at Goliath's side. 

Thunder cracked overhead, jolting him out of his thoughts. Sanris bared his teeth at it from his shelter beneath the tree. He could not afford to waste any time here, wherever here was.

Evidently, the storm had plans of its own.


OOC: better late than never, I suppose.
Tags: @athena

[Deleted]

night falls like people into love.
we generate our own light
to compensate
for the lack of light from above.

The wind whipped furiously atop the ridge, and Athena eyed the tattered trees that dotted the crestline, their branches flinging wildly with each powerful gust. If the storm came too close, anyone left out in the open would be in danger. Any living creature would be a magnet for lightning. There could be a wildfire, and no one else would know she was out there. Yet, somehow, the threats seemed trivial that night. She knew she was at risk but she no longer cared. There was something enticing out there, and she was going to find it.

An unknown scent, carried by the gales, suddenly seized Athena’s attention. Drawn from her fantasies, the masculine scent captured the female’s imagination – was he near? There were no brutes wandering Kal’dyne... or at least, there were not supposed to be any males there. Her pace hurried, child lifted and dark nostrils flaring as she searched for the male outsider.

Indeed, he was near. Her search for the wolf ended when she caught sight of a black and white beast slinking through the landscape, down below from where she stood. The pale fur along her backbone bristled as she watched him closely. He remained ignorant to her presence, unaware that someone was watching, which set the she-wolf at a distinct advantage. The foreigner was not terribly imposing, of average size. She wondered: did he know he was trespassing? Valeria would not be pleased to know that a strange male had wandered into her realm. Instead of running to retrieve her alpha, Athena froze in her tracks to see what the intruder would do next. The dual-colored brute disappeared beneath a fallen log. Athena watched carefully. If he was not prepared, the ground could flood and he would be swallowed up by the earth beneath him.

Her silver pelt appeared much darker in the scant light, but her eyes were glowing the color of sunset, fixated upon the stranger’s sorry excuse for shelter from the storm. Reason screamed inside of her head – Leave now! Leave him to die! But her other senses howled at her to stay, made her feel tempestuous deep inside. The ambivalent feelings tore at her and it felt wrong, all wrong, but she could not bring herself to walk away. She could feel the blood coursing through her veins as her excitement clouded any semblance of logic that remained. Her body quivered – she had to go down there. She had to satisfy her curiosity and meet her fear face-to-face.

Thunder rolled in the distance, its deep echo lingering in the night ominously, but Athena was not fearful of the storm. Heart racing, she hurried down, down to the grove of trees where the brute sought shelter. A good pack wolf should have been outraged by his presence in a land where he did not belong, but her expression was not angry as she sucked in the night air as if she was drowning when she stopped before him. Her heart raced faster still as her head lowered to meet his gaze, vivid orange eyes narrowing as she stared him down, exploring the intruder’s saffron-hued pools for a hint of malice. ”Your name,” she gasped, own heart hammering in her ears. Her tone was as serious as a grave, twin eyes aflame in the darkness that surrounded them both. ”Tell me your name.”

a cold wind blows our way
but we learn like the trees
how to bend,
how to sway.

words: 603
tag: @sanris
ooc: it starts! >3

[Deleted]

Sanris didn't catch so much as a whiff of the she-wolf until after he could see her coming across the ground at the base of the ridge toward him. He cursed the wind blowing in her direction as his heart thudded with each whip of the wind around the tree trunks of the copse and rapidly approaching thunder.

She was around his age, it seemed, perhaps younger, and what scent of hers he caught piqued his interest as he watched her close the distance between them.

Pack. He hadn't known there was one nearby. The scent of many wolves, all jumbled together in a distinct smell. Distincly female. He pondered this curiosity, that he could not smell any male wolves on her at all.

There was also the small detail that she seemed to be positively swimming in phereomones. Sanris laughed inwardly even as he eased out of his sorry shelter to meet her. So. This is what it came to. He knew it was around the season of such things. He himself was beginning to feel twinges of the instinctual urge that came in the dead of winter for all wolves. But this female- she was drowning in it. His nostrils flared a little. A little side effect of her apparent lack of gentlemen friends?

In any case, it should be considerably easier to manipulate her into letting him pass through her pack's land. He was convinced now, that this is what this was all about. He wasn't supposed to be here.

She wasted no time, once she was within the distance that he could hear her over the wailing gale. He smothered another laugh and ignored the answering prickle of fur at his back as his body reacted to her... strong scent."Your name. Tell me your name."

"Atoyo," he said off the top of his head. It was always better to give an alias, especially if he could tarnish his old rival's name in the process. Her eyes were very orange, he thought as he regarded her cooly, his stance carefully neutral and tail lowered as the wind buffeted his ears. Those eyes... they made her look almost like a bird of prey in lupine form, with her silvery dark coat and luminous copper eyes staring him down. His nostrils flared again as he caught her scent. "I hope I was not... interrupting you?" He left it at that, thinking she could take what she wanted out of the statement.



OOC: In which San makes an interesting first impression.
Tags: @athena
Word Count: 427

[Deleted]

You’re falling out of touch
and you're barely there
keeping up with the rush
just to go nowhere.

The startling eyes that locked with hers caught the restless fae’s attention – eerie yellow, otherworldly. An unconscious growl threatened to spill from her maw. His eyes were unnatural and evasive. ”Atoyo.” The moniker swam through her consciousness, lodging itself in the depths of her memory. Of course, Athena did not intend to see him again after the sunrise. She had no idea where he had come from, which pack he belonged to, but none of the details mattered. The brute did not ask for her name is response, and it was just as well. The more information he gained about her, the less power she had over their encounter. ”I hope I was not... interrupting you?” A single brow arched curiously as she considered his words, but she said nothing in return, her only offering a low huff sound escaping her lips.

Everything inside of her screamed conflicting demands, her thoughts muddled by the electricity in the air and the scorching yellow feline eyes. The stranger was not much bigger than she was, but powerfully built compared to Athena’s lithe physique. Silently, she scrutinized his well-formed muscles, his girth, the way he carried himself. The male was trimmed with shades of onyx and charcoal, but it was the liquid pools of dirty saffron that she knew would be burned into her memories.

He disgusted her. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to rip his throat out, tear him to shreds. She wanted him to come closer, to feel his warmth during this endless night. His foreigner’s scent made something primal within her twist and coil, as a snake prepares to strike its target.

She had been controlled her entire life, dragged along as a hapless pawn in the chaos of an unforgiving and hostile world. Now it was her turn. He had not yet realized that she held his livelihood in her jaws. Whether he lived or died should not have mattered to Athena. Yet she would spare him if he offered up what the she-wolf’s quivering body commanded. Instinct prevailed over reason.

”You will die if you stay here.” As if on cue, a crack of thunder rippled in the distance as the storm charged closer with every passing minute, followed mere seconds later by a bolt of lightning that made everything around her look bright, ethereal. ”Come with me.” Nothing about the moment felt like waking life. The silvery pelt along her spine bristled as she lifted her head, daring to steal a long sniff of the male before her.

There was nothing left to say, no pretty promises to fill the void. Athena turned away as swift as the blink of an eye, unwilling to listen to an argument or reply from the beast. If he chose to stay put, the weather or the pack would destroy him. Athena carried his fate now. Either he followed and gave Athena what she wanted, or he would die in the mud. Worse yet, he risked discovery by the pack wolves that called the realm their own. Valyn had no use for males, but tonight – tonight was different.

She did not know the consequences that would follow her actions if her Valyn sisters discovered that Athena had gone astray. She knew that it was wrong in spite of the mounting excitement that lured her forward. Her eyes darted back to see if the male was trailing behind her. The resounding rolls of thunder were dulled by the sound of her own racing heart, but the ground trembled beneath her silver-hued paws as she weaved toward the border.

The vibrations... the smells... Every sensation was awake. The heightened awareness was intoxicating – the hot blood flowing through her being, the spreading heat as she hurried closer to the territory’s invisible border. Nature’s pulse reverberated through the landscape, the earth-shattering peals of thunder, accompanied by a white flash of light that brightened the night for half of a second before descending into blackness once more.

I could just pretend that you love me
the night would lose all sense of fear
but why do I need you to love me
when you can't hold what I hold dear?

words: 714
tag: @sanris

[Deleted]

The she-wolf made no other remark about his comment but a cooly raised brow and a short huff. Sanris was left feeling slightly irritated that he had gained no additional information from her- or perhaps his irritation was simply due to the way his body was beginning to respond to her cloying scent. He could smell nothing else above the wind, excpet for the crackly tang in the air that meant lightning was not too far off.

The moment of silence between them (or what silence there could be beneath the brewung storm) was broken by a tremendous crack of thunder, with a flash that threw the copse into sudden blinding light and lit up the silver of the she-wolf's pelt into the hot white of the moon, which had better sense than to show its luminous head tonight.

Sanris wished again that he had had such sense.

"You will die if you stay here. Come with me."  He could feel the blistering heat under her words. His hackles bristled slightly with some intense emotion- not anger, something different, baser- as she drew in a long breath, before turning around and heading away from the copse, presumably to a safer place to wait out the storm.


He was left with a choice. He had made a mistake with his shelter, he saw now, as the rain that had started only moments before trickled down in muddy streams from the ridge to the copse. The stand of trees was set in a depression in the ground- a good place for avoiding lightning- but was quickly becoming one big muddle in the onslaught of rain. He pulled one sinking paw out of the mucky loam and narrowed his eyes, watching the silver female's form as she strode away into the trees.

She is not Zaida. 

He remembered the taunting, flirtatious green eyes, the way her white pelt caught the moonlight from the snow.

Sanris snarled to himself. That was fine with him. He did not want to think of Zaida anymore. He did not want to see her in his dreams, waking or otherwise. This female- her haughtiness that made the hate boil up inside him, viscous and sticky, her searching, burning eyes. The way he could feel her burn with need for him- she was not Zaida. But she would do.

Sanris bared his teeth in a half-growl, half-grin. He followed.

OOC: sorry for the wait! I'll try to get the posting speed back up.
Tags: @athena

[Deleted]

we’ve lost our way, lost our way.
maybe we’ve run out of time.
driving ourselves out of our minds,
maybe we’re missing the signs

The intruder hesitated in his doomed hiding place. But the dominant sex was ever predictable, and within moments, the ebony splashed intruder was a shadow following along behind Athena, who held her tail behind her like a banner. She knew he would follow. He would follow her off a cliff, she suspected as she ran unevenly up the muddy slope. Her fragrance trailed in the air behind her, blatant despite the raindrops that began to fall around her. Her compulsion was overpowering, female instincts taking over her brain and her body. The fae’s behavior was scandalous, but the primitive desires that churned inside of her were beyond her control, even if she would live to regret this stormy night.

Perhaps if another male had been present that night, Athena could have been more discerning in her choice, but he would suffice. They were two pariahs in the night, brought together not by kismet, but by circumstance and a tempestuous feeling in the air. This brute was not as big or as fearsome as her first mate, but she was not thinking of those dark days.

Indeed, it had happened to Athena before... She was already defective, always had been. Ba’al had given her no choices, taking her even before she was old enough to be of use to his desire to procreate prodigiously. But this time was different. This time, she was the one in control. He knew nothing about her, and she would cling fast to her anonymity. The visitor had no right to learn her name or her pack’s name, no reason to be there unless Athena decided he should stay. Tonight was on her terms. If she could help it, her transgressions would remain a secret shared only between the two frenzied wolves.

Emotions were dropped along with pretenses as the rain began to pour from the sky like tears. In her heart and in her soul, she was desolate. She ignored the stabbing pain that threatened to subdue her as she raced up, higher still, stopping only when she had reached the top of the hill’s crest. The rain dripped from her silver pelt. She felt heavy as lead. Without looking back, her hackles raised as she waited for the stranger, her fate stretching out before her like dark clouds. He was a liar and a trespasser. Worst of all, he was a male – but for once, for one night, she would accept him in. It had nothing to do with love. She was not looking for tenderness or warmth, the intimacy shared between lovers. The muscles tightened in her legs, teeth grit. Feral eyes turned finally to see the brute approaching, her expression contemptuous. She was ready to meet him, but she would not be taken lying down.

all of our dreams making us blind.

baby, we're leaving behind

nothing to see, nothing inside.

we're out of our minds with nothing inside

words: 513
tag: @sanris

[Deleted]

They weaved silently between the trees, the female like a silver wraith in front, and Sanris a shadow trailing behind her, lean and hungry-looking. He kept her carefully in his sights as she slipped in and out of shadows up the ridge, though he needn't have bothered. If there were any other males in this strange territory, they would be aware of her by smell alone. He parted his jaws to feel the thick scent of her hit the back of his throat.

The female wound her way around a hulking boulder and Sanris realized they were heading uphill, back up the ridge. His ear twitched. Why was she going back up the ridge? A small worm of paranoia climbed up into his throat. Had she lied, after all, and this was some sort of trap?

It was too late to run- she could be on him like a fox on a rabbit, with an easy run back down the hill, and if there was a pack behind her, around here somewhere- he continued up the steep slope, breath considerably faster.

They reached the top. quickly. Sanris stepped onto the crest of the hill warily, eyes sliding from side to side for any attackers that could be here with them in the lashing rain, but none leaped out. The female was standing stiff, her rump to him, a dark shape silloutted against the marginally lighter sky. When it was clear there was not going to be an ambush, and she was as foolish as she seemed, her plan came together in his head. Here is where she wanted to... he grinned ferally, savoring the rush of adrenaline that drowned out everything else.

There was no trace of hesitance in him now, and he wasted no time. Sanris gave a small growl of warning (though it was mostly involuntary) before he gave in to the need that crashed and broke in a wave over his head.

It was quick and impersonal. He had a moment of horror after, when he hadn't fully been able to... extricate himself from her, nearly toppling the both of them over (he had never been fool enough to believe in a thing like Lupa, Fenris, or Coyote the trickster, but he had been seized with the frantic thought that it was punishment from some malevolent thing,) but it had thankfully not lasted long. He broke away and stepped back, all previous desire spent. He wanted nothing more than to dissapear and wash this night and the stench of her that the rain hadn't managed to wash from his fur.


Tagged: @athena
OOC: hope you're feeling better and your classes are going okay! Sorry I haven't been around. ;-;
Muse: good (finally)!

[Deleted]

and they say that the truth will set you free,

but then again, so will a lie.

it depends if you're trying to get to the promised land

or if you're just trying to get by.

The shocking loss of constraint crept through her from the tip of her tail to each of her toes, straining against the wet earth to keep herself standing. His weight pressing down on her smaller physique was burdensome, and the moment he began his rhythmic movements, Athena wished it was over. Their bodies moved in harmony, if only for a moment, two wretched beasts soaked in the eye of the storm. Her strained breathing and her hitching voice drowned were out by the storm, heavy breaths and savage groans little more than a whisper above the din of the tempest. It was a vile act. The silver femme felt tumultuous inside, somewhere between euphoria and dismay, and the fleeting need was extinguished. Her attempt to break away from his heft was thwarted instantly. In spite of the subsiding lechery, the pair were still trapped together. The tie was brief, and as Athena was released, she uttered an exasperated moan.

There was no sense of relief or tenderness, no sentimental emotions. The looming regret was instantaneous, and she repressed the urge to shrivel like a leaf and blow away, to be somewhere, anywhere other than that place, with the foul creature she had allowed inside. Her own audacity seemed to evaporate, and she shook, disbelief overwhelming. Her own moral decay was startling, and she stared at the brute, splashed in darkness. The skin beneath her pale pelt crawled, and regarded the intruder with a renewed sense of revulsion.

What have I done?

The squall echoed through the night. The fae’s hackles raised, hostility flashing in her bright orange oculars. She hated herself, but she loathed the stranger even more – and the spirits could only guess what her alpha and her pack sisters would say if they came across them there. His lingering presence was brazen, and her aggression bubbled over as her shoulders squared defensively. She could not look at him any longer, his haunting, sickly yellow eyes. Her passion to give in her instincts was replaces by a fierce rage, a yearning only to see her hapless lover bleeding and broken on the soaked earth below her paws. A bolt of lightning illuminating her ivory fangs, bared at the wolf she had been so close to only moments before. She had given him respite from the storm, but he did not belong here.

”Get out. Now.”

Nature was a cruel mistress, and the living mere puppets in her game. Athena had given in, a moment of weakness she would soon regret with every ounce of her being No one could know of her misdeeds. The rain dripped from her fur, and she hoped his stench would be absent before she encountered another Valyn fae.

She would not fully understand the ramifications of her carnal blunder for weeks. The two did not even know the other’s true moniker, but soon, the two would be inextricably bonded for life. Every mistake carried a consequence – or, in the unfortunate fae’s case, four little consequences. Athena’s difficulties had only just begun.

words: 560
tag: @sanris
ooc: I’m feeling great <3
This will be Athena’s final post here!
Let there be puppies!!

[Deleted]

She turned around, and he waited against his better judgement to see her face turned to his, held by a sickly fascination in her reaction, muzzle dripping from the still-driving rain. Her sunset-bright eyes locked on his, and he did not like the volatility he saw in them. She bared her teeth at him, and he saw them clearly against the stark flash of lighting outlined in the dark of her gums.

"Get out. Now." 

He did not stay for an elaboration, instead aiming a throaty snarl at her in return and dissapearing into the trees on the rim of the clearing. He stood still for a minute, delibrately slowing his breathing, and when it was clear the she-wolf was not going to follow and attempt an attack he tore down the side of the ridge at a pace that suggested the entirety of her pack was on his heels.

Sanris did not stop once he reached level ground beneath the trees. With the female gone, every barest instinct in his body screamed to get away before he was caught in the rain with the scent of a pack female on him. His heart pounded with a terrible mix of leftover adrenaline and heady fear as he dodged trees in the darkness, ignoring the still-lashing rain and the now deafening thunder, telling him the storm was right on top of the island. Even worse, was the feeling in his chest that he had once again made a grave mistake. Even though he soothed himself with the knowledge that the female would dare not tell, and he had given her the wrong name, he was safe, anonymous, the feeling clung cold to his insides. He did not yet know how foretelling it was.

He stopped briefly for a breath, his lungs burning with exertion and fear, and half-turned back to the direction he knew the ridge lay, behind the darkness and sheets of rain and thick woods. He let his eyes rest there for a minute before growling, less a curse and more something he couldn't put a paw on, some dark emotion- or emotions, so tangled he couldn't discern him. It made him uneasy. With a last, narrowed-eye glance in the direction of the ridge, he broke into a run, building up to the same breakneck pace as before.

He would find a place of sanctuary this night to wait of the remainder of the storm, but it would not be here.



OOC: Sanris' last post, and the thread is finished! On to The Last Hurrah, so that I can free up Lethe's spot! \o/
Tags: @athena