And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

A big-boned wolf effortlessly moved through the forest. He had no need to fear the darkness around him. He belonged there, in the silence and fateful agelessness of the haunted trees that grew arms and reached for him. He swiped his pink tongue over his chops, only another bulk in the dark. He had just run-in with a silvery man, much afraid by these haunted whispers; lost and confused. The stranger had gone in circles for countless hours from the afternoon to midnight. It was actually saddening, but very much amusing simultaneously. Tenzin perked his ears with the call of a buzzard. Something died, he thought, those birds were drawn to the very scent of death. Calmly, he pushed on, wondering how far this forest could go. It seemed like it was a longer journey backwards than forwards, though that was not how Ten remembered it. But he was only in the center of the exciting adventure. Much more to go, guaranteed.

As the brute walked, his mind floated off to his brother, anger flooding his every raspy, dark breath. His pitiful brother who seemed to have no sense of his bravado or ignorance to the fact he was nothing but a mutt who can't keep his mouth shut. In their past talk, he and Kamota had come to an armistice. If Tenzin could make allies acting like himself, Kamota would take everything back. He had taken the deal. He shook out his pelt and gloomily trotted forward. A shape moved in the distance. It moved with purpose, unlike the shadows of birds and forever lost fawns. It was another wolf, hopefully not trapped like the many others lurking here. He had enough saving other wolves this week.

Tenzin lifted his maw in his/her general direction. Jupitus was watching over him; he knew this because of the warming gaze he thought he felt on his fur that kept him moving, The scent was foggy and flowery. A female's scent. He felt a sense of protection washed over him. It was an instinct he had adopted as he grew up with a younger sister and a partner-in-crime. His cracked, aching paws slowly grazed the ground while the big male forced himself into silent pawsteps. The female grabbed onto the branch and let out a roar, tearing a tree's arm off violently. His gray, white, and red ears perked with newfound curiosity. He decided to watch her woman for a few minutes until she began looking at a little hole in the ground. The den looked unimportant to Ten, just like any other hole in the dirt.

Finally, he got the urge to move. He couldn't, for he was frozen in confusion. Why was this den so important to her? It looked abandoned. If it had been her current den, she would be putting a cache into it, caring for pups, or she would quit staring at it like a love-stricken puppy. That was when Tenzin's muscles moved into action. He stood and moved his bedraggled body towards her, not stopping until he could see her clearly. He did not sit but instead raised his tail dominantly. His fur bristled, and stayed that way. But he kept his mouth shut. He couldn't growl until he learned her motives for wandering around at dawn in a haunted forest. "So, are you going to propose mateship with that den or what?" Tenzin cackled. His voice was gravelly, rocky, raspy...much like you'd here if you met a viking. But instead of having that giant-with-a-soft-heart kind of ring, it had a mocking way to it.

Deciding whether to trust or credit a person is always an uncertain task.

Tenzin Laylani was no saint, nor was he a sinner. He had a sense of right and wrong, and he wasn't the worst guy on earth. But he was a monster, made by his loved one's manipulation and his own impulsive ways. His gray and red pelt mustered its way into the light. His liquid orange eyes searched the tawny, golden eyed she-wolf before him in the little bit of daylight shining through the canopy. She seemed to be prideful in herself, confident. A wolf that Jupitus would approve of, he thought. His eyes shone curiously, and he tilted his head. The monster in him was to be awoken soon. Jupitus was going to make him show it. "The name's Tenzin."

The big male snarled with her mention to what seemed like her past. She had said she was here to see what was left in the den; therefore, she was still hanging on to her seemingly to-be-spilled biography. "Sorry, but If I was you, I would stop holding on to your past, mutt." The enormous, tower of muscle growled, not caring what happened at this point. He felt strongly on his words. His own used-to's have come back to haunt them. Even though they were still strangers, he didn't want the same for her.

He could see her scars she bore, which most were covered by her thick fur. That close, the wounds weren't that hard to notice. Tenzin bared his teeth and lifted his upper lip. "I can tell, you're here for something other than just looking for lost items. You're looking for something more. Tell me what it is." Tenzin muttered, shaking his head. He cooled down slowly. He had no control over his twisting and turning anger. But lately, things hadn't been going his way. so it was rough and there was a reason for his teeth to come out and threaten to break skin.

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

Ten calmed himself. He was jumping into the argument too quickly. This always happened for him, fore he couldn't keep his mouth shut. His brawny limbs forced him into a sit, and he forced his fur down. He counted to ten in his head ... One, two, three... The large man looked at the still-standing wolf before him and took account of her words. Respectfully, of course. She was his equal now, but she was always going to seem like his inferior muscle mass. That would never change.

"But the past is what shapes us, and if we don't look to it on occasion we run the risk of making the same mistakes again... and that friend is pure stupidity." She was right, and she was wrong. The past did shape you and what you are today, obviously. Tenzin himself knew he was a product of puppetry. But if you learned your lesson the first time, you won't have to keep studying the nightmare you were in before. That was the whole purpose of moving on; because you work so hard analyzing your problems until you realize you've already learned what you have needed to. And at that point, your future is crashing down on you and you have made another nightmare. The cycle repeats until you finally know that the present is a gift, and it's all that you have to worry about.

"Yes, the past is what shapes you, yet, if you have a complete puzzle piece from the ruins, you won't need to look back over your shoulder and slow your life down every single mistake. The first time it happens, you should learn your lesson from the aftermath left before you. Because with all that time you take to study your mistakes before, you forget to rebuild what you have now." Tenzin murmured thoughtfully, hoping it made some sense to her that she needed to move on with it. What it was didn't matter. That lesson worked most of the time. Her reply to his questions were of no use.

"Solomon's Seal, White Fir, Ginger..." Her words were of herbs. She was a healer? His ears perked in interest, forgetting their argument over the past. His eyes shone with curiosity. A few herbs grew in the haunted woods, but it was almost impossible with the lack of light. Vines could be found on almost every tree. Tenzin paused to look up at them. They looked pitiful: reaching for the sun longingly. His fur tingled with discomfort in the cold air. His paws were cold on the dusty, damp earth that vibrated through him. He longed for rest, a nice nap in a warm location. Tenzin had no idea if any warm place existed in this region he had stumbled into.

"Mostly, just a chance to get away. Things have changed... and I am yet to determine a course of action. It's easier to think when you don't have to contend with the clattering jaws of the self-important." Tenzin let the trace of a smile appear on his face. She was right. It's easier to think here than to think in the soundtrack of the mountains, where a wolf was always sure to roam and chatter. No one dared to come here, where the ghosts whispered and the wind sang with the spirits. He dipped his head and murmured an agreement, listening to her as calmly as possible.

"I am Naira, of Poison Path..." Naira. He made a mental note of her name, but shoved that aside to make room for his question about this "Poison Path." He assumed it as a pack. "You live in a pack?" This caught him off guard. Oddly, the man would've never guessed. He actually thought there were no packs around here. It hadn't seen one since he left his own family. Well, actually, he had seen another after that,...but those thoughts were for other days.

Tenzin felt himself growing more and more comfortable in her presence, but something told him to stop being so calm with her. He had never been so warmed-up to any wolf that wasn't in his family. It was odd, it made him frown to himself and scorn Jupitus. Do not blasphemy! The brute would remind himself hastily. His tail wrapped under his gray and red paws, he smirked at her words, "Yes, we live on the mountain..."

If that mountain was anything as cold as the mountain he and Kamota confronted each other, it was a bad idea to make home in. He shivered with the thought, and then remembered his own home. It was central in the wilds, so it had its ups and downs in the seasons. But it seemed like living in the mountains would bring cold from every direction. It definitely wasn't the place that he would choose, especially if you plan on raising a family there. He would probably never raise a family anyways. It wasn't of his business, but that didn't change his course of thought.

"Why did your pack choose to live in the mountain? Isn't that cold?" Tenzin wanted to know from a packmate herself. His ears flattened on his head as he stifled a shiver.
"Have you been looking for a new home Tenzin?" The older wolf inquired, making him chuckle. His gravelly voice responded as if he was thinking about his answer carefully. "Hah! Do I look like the guy who'd obey orders from an uptight alpha? Tenzin snorted and rolled his eyes, laughing a little. He had taken a moment to consider joining Poison Path for the heck of it...just to haunt Kamota. He didn't think he should mention it to a Poison Path member themself.. Finally, his voice evened and he continued in a friendlier way, "Ah, no offense, but I've never been much of a family guy anyways. I like taking care of me, myself, and I. Hell, I wanna whack all my family members upside the head for what they've done! If I ever get to see them again, that's probably what I'll do!"

Text text text
"My mother was Arctic so the cold has never really bothered me and my ma-" There was a breathtakingly long silence where Tenzin suddenly realized that she had some kind of hidden past that she wasn't telling very well. He strained to hear her story as she spoke, her voice only cracking once. He looked down upon her softly and tentatively while she explained. This left him wondering how much she had really gone through. "My mate wanted a defensible position... we didn't exactly leave our former pack on amicable terms... then... We left...My son was taken, I found him. Then the landslide... I came back and he was gone, so was one of my children... She...I found him once... and he attacked us, me and my son... He's mad."

Naira's words tangled in his brain. It took him a few minutes, which seemed like a few million hours, to make sense of them. Those were some of the longest time frames of his life. His amber eyes seemed to avert from his paws, to her face, and a smile planted upon his maw. A crooked smile. An evil smile, but at the same time: understanding. His fur tingled. He searched for the right words to reply to her story. He did not care to tell his own yet. It wasn't exactly the kind of past that many people got to hear. They're not many wolves that Tenzin Laylani trusted. Not even his own brother.

So. This was it. She was a leader of a pack, whether or not she founded it was questionable. Not anymore, obviously. She had, or has a mate, and he was mad. Something happened to her children. And he felt sickly sorry for the older she-wolf. "I'm sorry about what's happened...." Tenzin whispered, slowly moving his brute body into a standing position and creeping over to Naira. He nuzzled her in her cheek and then touched noses with her some-what affectionately, but quickly moved backwards. He seemed surprised in his own compassion. He obviously straightened up and became hardened again, holding his head high with strength.

"You don't need to tell me about obnoxious siblings. I just wish I still had the authority to pick and choose my family... but, well, soon enough eh?" A chill filled her voice, just a bit short of dangerous. He liked it. "Ah, so what's the plan, your highness? The grizzly voice toned in. He was happy to be able to help with whatever she needed, as long as he wasn't her permanent slave-boy.