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OOC: Not my best post.. I'm not good at starting things. xD May the force be with you. The small, golden second of Midnight Plateau slid carefully down the mountain, limping as she went along. She was healing well, and even though she was still in bad shape she found that she could sort of walk/drag herself. Makita had gotten sick of staying in her den and decided to wander out and venture around the mountain today. It was cold, though, and Makita shivered a little bit, glancing up at the sky, partly covered with dull grey clouds. Gosh, I'm so sick of all this cold and precipitation. she thought bitterly to herself. Making sure that she wasn't leaving a blood train behind her and that she wasn't reopening any wounds, she limped along the mountain. Suddenly, she thought of why she was limping across the mountain. At first, Borden struck her thoughts. Truthfully, there wasn't ever a day where, seeing as she took his rank and his home, she didn't think about Borden - he had been her idol. Recently, though, they weren't happy thoughts. They were sad thoughts of how he betrayed her (as she saw it) for a girl, whose name she still did not know but didn't care to learn. But, in truth, Makita was sick of thinking and bringing back old memories that made her sad. So instead, she thought of the other wolves she had met. She thought of Angier, the one who had saved her life and later become a happy aquantince whom she enjoyed spending some spare time with. Letting a smile light her golden muzzle, she continued to think of the positives. There was Vlarindara, the one who put the most effort into scaring away the bear. She risked her life just for Makita, who had been cranky to her before. Vlar had taken her to a den and cared for her, even though Makita was near death. The she - wolf had saved her life, and Makita appreciated it beyond belief. And then, of course, there was the other one. The male that didn't speak. The male that watched as she was attacked and nearly died, but didn't move a paw. And then, he had fled. What had happened to him? She couldn't blame him for running. Bears were mean and scary, Makita came to find out. Lowering her head, she sighed. It was none of her business. The she - wolf let herself stop. Her muscles were aching and her wounds were close to reopening. Carefully, she lowered herself to the ground and stared out across the mountain. Gosh, it was gorgeous. Makita, in that moment, felt like she had it all and was very proud to be a Midnight Plateau wolf.

Having found being on the mountain so refreshingly and beautifully different to life in the forest, Kinis had decided to stick around a little longer than anticipated. He had made sure to eat well before the hike, so all he needed to find was a good place to rest. Having found the local residents to be very accommodating so far, he could see no real flaw in the plan.

The sky had clouded over, but it didn't dampen his enjoyment. Having had his fill of the view, Kinis' investigations had focused on the mountain, and the different ecosystems and habitat that it provided. He swore that there were animals and plants up here that he had never seen before! So absorbed was he in this game of learning that he almost didn't realise that one wolfish scent tickled his memory. Upon taking notice of it, he paused, a slight frown marring his otherwise contented expression.

No immediate answer came to mind; he could not think why a young female wolf, local to a mountain he had never visited before, would be familiar to him. Curiosity sparked, he lowered his nose to better pick up the trail, and delightfully noted that he would be able to practise tracking. Time on the mountain was time well spent, it seemed! The mystery girl bore the unpleasant fragrance of blood, and that only served to compound his intrigue. He knew a young, wounded female on the mountain? Quickly absorbed by this new curiosity, he followed her trail until, finally, it grew significantly in strength and his eyes alighted on a small, tawny form, apparently enjoying the view as much as he had done.

His mind turned over furiously, his body completely still as he tried not to draw attention to himself, desperate to discover the connection before engaging in any kind of conversation. Though, if he was unable to remember, conversation seemed inevitable; he could hardly let such a mystery go unsolved. Comprehension failing him, Kinis chose to bite the bullet, and stepped forwards a little heavily - deliberately causing noise - and cleared his throat. It was only once he had started, a small, friendly smile on his face as he said "Hey, do I kn-" did he suddenly remember it all, and the words caught in his throat. "Oh my -" he gasped, bears and white wolves and badgers and muteness and cowardliness rushing back, and the step that he had taken forwards was quickly taken back.

Shameful. He had been such a horrible, horrible coward, and look at her, now, somehow she was still alive, but look at her!

Faintly, he knew that his inclusion in the improbable fight would have done nothing, but that hardly helped. He should have tried. "You're still -" alive, but he didn't say it, how rude was that? Instead, he looked in mild horror at her battered condition, and a hurtful lump formed somewhere deep in his chest. To compound his distress, her name escaped him. What a horrid excuse for a wolf he was.

Dumbfounded and endlessly guilty, Kinis just gaped openly.

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It didn't matter that Makita ached everywhere. It didn't matter that she was very close to reopening some very deep wounds. It didn't matter that she was out of her den. It didn't even matter that she was alone. All that mattered was, as she stared out across the mountain, she was here. She had made new friends and found her place, her home. And now, she was looking over one of the most beautiful sites she's ever seen - and it took her breath away. Lifting her head slightly to the sky, letting her fur blow gently in the wind, closing her gorgeous golden eyes, she was completely and utterly complete (without her family of course) - or at least it felt like it. She didn't ever want to move, she didn't ever want to leave. Don't disturb me, anyone. thought Makita happily, letting her golden eyes reopen and stare out across the land, her mouth hung open slightly with awe. She certainly hadn't noticed this when she was coming up here. You were in critical condition. You couldn't hardly breathe. she thought to herself, letting a chuckle split into the brisk air. Suddenly, her eyebrows creased with confusion. She had caught a scent of a wolf, but it was firmiliar. Normally, she would've gone with the assumption that it was another of her pack, even though she was a little bit off the territory, but the scent didn't carry Midnight Plateau's smell. Makita didn't have time to find out though. A rustle in the bushes made Makita's ears swivel over to the sound, her eyes narrowing with concern. All she could do now was hope that it wasn't a murderous wolf filled with bloodlust in his heart. She was too weak to fight at this point. But, luckily, instead of a massive, crazy wolf, a small, firmiliar brown wolf stepped out from the bushes. Where do I know him from? Makita thought to herself, her eyes softening as a smile lit the wolf's features. "Hey, do I kn-" the wolf paused, his eyes filling with something like shock. Makita tilted her head, her ears perking as to why he was all the sudden so taken aback. Then, he took a step back and cowered just a bit. It was all to firmiliar. Thoughts of Vlarindara filled her mind and how she missed her. Angier was there, too. But the third wolf - the one that had just sat and watched... He was right in front of her. "It - it's you!" Makita yelped, staring just as he did to her, her mouth wide with awe. Shaking her head and the dumbfounded expression of her face, she nodded back to him. "Y - yea, I'm.. urhh, alive. The white one - Vlarindara - she took care of me." murmured Makita, interest obvious in her face as she stared back at the wolf. "What are you doing here? You aren't a Midnight Plateau wolf, are you?"

In all honestly, Kinis had half-expected some beration, perhaps some deserved scolding, or at least anger on her part. Kinis found it hard to remember the way he had fled without feeling intense shame and disgust, though he was still all-too aware of how little use he would have been. Oh, conundrum! With a small spike of realisation, for maybe this is what that shouty, angry wolf meant about Kinis being a bad person, he swiftly came to the conclusion that all he could do was try to make amends from here.

Besides that, she didn't berate him. She merely sounded as surprised as he was.

"N-no," he answered slowly, recovering from the unexpected turn of events and the tumultuous internal reaction it had had. "I'm just... sightseeing, I guess?" Oh, it was so much more than that, but when your mind locks up, it's hard to say the right things at the right time. Fighting his mental block, Kinis stepped forward, his initial curiosity as to her identity satisfied - but that only gave way to more questions! "Vlarindara... she was the one with the badger? I'm, um, glad she was there for you." And sorry I wasn't. The next question was out before he had a chance to censor himself. "How did you make it up here?"

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The last question to excape her dark lips was pointless. It was obvious that this wolf wasn't apart of a pack. He was too thin and smelled like no pack she'd ever met. Makita was thin as well, but she was recovering from that, too, as her stay at the mountain lengthened. Shock was still pretty darn obvious in her eyes as she stared up at him from the ground, where she still laid completely still. Even though it was a stupid question, the wolf answered slowly, 'N-no', Makita's ears perked a little with curiosity. Why was he here then? Surely he wasn't looking for her.. but she was sure that he wasn't just walking the mountain either. 'I'm just... sight-seeing, I guess?' The she - wolf nodded her head gently. The wolf muttered something about Vlar, the she - wolf that Makita had came to trust. Then, of course, he had to ask a question that made all the memories - from her first meeting with Borden to her arrival at the pack - flood back into her mind. 'How did you make it up here?' Sadly, Makita's head fell and her eyes stared at the ground at her paws. She hated to think about it. It brought back memories. Memories of her first meeting with Borden, the wolf who had become her idol, the one she looked up to most. Memories of the bear attack, slicing it's sharp black claws across her side - she could almost feel the pain of the sharp claws digging into her skin all over again. Memories of the scumbag Swift River wolves, raking their claws across her fur and yanking it back and sinking their teeth into her rump and side. Memories of seeing the fear in the wolf's bright orange eyes. Memories of her days in the den with Vlar, the gentle white she - wolf running her soft tongue along her wounds. All of these memories, and more, flooded into her head and the sadness in her eyes was obvious. The only thing she could do was try to hold back the tears. "Urhh... Well," her voice was cut off by the lump in her throat. Makita hadn't lived the superstar life so far. "I guess I've just got a strong will. Vlarindara took me back to a den and cared for me for a bit. Eventually, I left and dragged myself up here so I could join the pack." Truthfully, she would've explained more, but she didn't want to talk about it at this point in time. Her overtrusting personality was the only thing to cause her to tell him what she did anyway. Golden eyes rose to stare across the land again, and, changing the subject, she began again. "Beautiful up here, isn't it?" a gentle smile, only slightly forced, lit her golden muzzle alight. "You can call me Makita."

Though it was the last of his intentions, it seemed that something Kinis had found entirely the wrong thing to say. Brow creasing with concern at her fallen expression, he chastised himself for speaking without thinking. He knew that question had been a bad idea. Or was her dejection because of something else he said? Ignorance was a bitch, but he tried to get over it enough to pay close attention to her from now. When she spoke, it was after a lengthy pause, and it was clear that she struggled. Kinis felt all the more wretched for that.

Fortunately, the young girl had more ability to turn the tide of conversation than he, and Kinis heartily welcomed the unsubtle change of topic. At her name, his memory was again pinged; Makita, that's right. Without stopping to think, he returned her smile with a shy, awkward one of his own, and then took a few hesitant steps forwards to sit a few feet away from her. His gaze flickered out to the view, appreciating it all over again. "I'm Kinis. And yeah, it's amazing." Adding 'you're really lucky' would probably be in bad taste, wouldn't it?

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Instantly, she let the bad thoughts escape her. Makita let her eyes skim over Kinis, whose name she put to memory quickly after he said it, and then stare out over the beautiful, breath-taking land. Without hesitation, she tried to put all thoughts of Borden, Vlarindara, badgers, weasels, bears, Swift River wolves, pain, tears, and fear in the back of her mind. It was too gorgeous and Makita was in too good a mood to think about everything that made her sad or made her life miserable. Sitting here with Kinis, who didn't seem as big a coward as she'd seen him last, was just too great to pass up with a Johnny Rain Cloud mood. Glancing over at Kinis, her eyes full of good hearted kindness, she watched happily as he hesitantly glanced at his paws, which slowly moved towards her to sit next to her. Makita let another one of her genuine smile light her golden muzzle. "I like to think so. The pack's also got the best alpha out there." she winked gently, her thick eyelashes bashing together. Truthfully, she wanted to ask him 'why didn't you help?'. But, she had already promised to let the thoughts of that horrible day - the terrible day that Borden left her - escape her mind. "Do you have a home? Parents, maybe?" she asked, hoping she hadn't taken a step onto thin ice. Makita knew the feeling of traveling alone for days and going hungry for a long time; she'd known it since she was five mere months old. If he didn't have parents or a pack, she would probably try to help him. She couldn't hunt well, but she knew where some good prey could most likely be found that was out of pack territory so he wasn't tresspassing. Truthfully, Makita enjoyed Kinis's company, even though he was a little quiet, and she wanted to help him even after he didn't help her.

At the mention of Alexander, Kinis couldn't help but smile. She had to mean him, right? There was only one pack up here, as far as Kinis knew, and the only thing preventing him from agreeing with her statement completely was his own adoration for his older brothers. Still... out of the two, he was closer to Ruiko, and he wasn't technically a leader any more. Kinis was too unsure of Indru's motives to think of him quite so highly as he once had.

So, maybe she was right. Alexander was the best pack leader around.

At her question, Kinis hesitated before responding. He had no reason to think that she would know Swift River; she lived on the mountain, after all, not in the forest. That was the lesser part of the question, of course. At the word 'parents', his content manner drooped just slightly; it was never pleasant to be reminded being an orphan. Imagined smoke and heat flashed briefly through his head before he suppressed it. He had been so very young, and his memory was slowly but surely failing him... it hurt to think that he could barely remember his mother and father at all. They may well have never existed.

"No, to the second bit," he said softly, but without any self-pity; he didn't want either of them to feel bad over an innocent question. "But I have family in the forest... by the river. I lived there until very recently. I don't... I guess it's harder than it seems to keep family together."

As soon as the words escaped Makita's dark black lips, she regretted them. Maybe it wasn't a harsh subject for Kinis to speak of, but she tried to put herself in his paws. If someone had asked her about her parents, she would've nearly fell apart at the thought. Her ties with her family were so tight... She definitely wouldn't have wanted to talk about her loss. Yet again, Kinis could possibly still have his parents, so she just sat and stared at her paws as silence hung in the air. "No to the second bit," There went Makita's hopes that Kinis still had parents and she didn't have to worry about asking a sensitive question. Even though he didn't have parents, he didn't seem to be too sad about it. Either that or he was hiding the self pity and depression in his voice. Makita didn't mind. She didn't want to have made him sad with a possibly harmless question. "But I have family in the forest... by the river. I lived there until very recently. I don't... I guess it's harder than it seems to keep family together." Ha. It was almost funny how similar he made it sound to her own story. The terrible story where her family was taken away from her because of something that she didn't even do. Where a horrible twister took her up into it's depths, filled with debree and strength. Thinking about it made her sad. Letting out a soft sigh, she shrugged. "I - I don't have parents either. I mean, I'd like to think they're still out there, but I was.. They left when I was really young." she paused, letting her head fall sadly and her eyes rise to stare out across the mountain, more of a sad expression now. It was her own fault though. "I don't have a family either. All the family that I ever had and that I ever loved was taken away from me when I was taken away by a twister. They're horrible things. Just like bears." she shot Kinis a sideways glance, winking gently, trying to put good humor in her voice. It was hard, but Makita didn't want to be sad. Kinis had seen her once nearly dead. She didn't want her seeing him again as sad as she was.

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So, We Meet Again - Kinis - Mar 23, 2011

Just like bears! Up until that reference, Kinis had almost been able to forget it, at least long enough to have a pleasant conversation. He had been caught up in concentrated sympathy and understanding for her situation when she came out with that, and he coughed (or was it an embarrassed splutter?) at the surprise of such a casual accusation. Damn. Was that underhand, or did he deserve it? Either way, it was as effective as knocking the wind out of his lungs, and he strove to say something to try and move on. He hadn't missed her amused glance, or her wink, but neither were enough to make him feel forgiven.

Coward.

"Uhh, you, wuh, uhm I, soso you don't have family in this pack?" Trying desperately to ignore the hitch in octaves that his voice had taken, he stared hard out at the view, refusing to meet her eyes for fear of being swallowed up by feeling like a terrible, terrible person. His expression, unsure what to settle on, flickered between serious to awkwardly happy as his frown came and went and his mouth couldn't decide whether to smile or not. His decision not to look at her also faltered every now and then, as he glanced back to her, not wanting to seem rude by 'ignoring' her. Oh, he was such a mess. "You, you uh, yeah, been alone for a while, then, hmm? How did you -" survive? oh boy that's the wrong word - "find... yourself... in that... uhh what's a twister?"

Smooth.

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