Pay no mind to the length, just trying to flesh out Damascus a bit more through writing. :)

After a brief rest that night, morning started with Damascus making his way through the wilting blackberry field. The tangle of brambles did not deter the travel-hardy wolf, who had mostly come out there to bask in the sunlight of the chilly morning. His tawny coat was damp with dew and his feet chilled as he moved effortlessly over the frosty terrain. With the viand blackberry now out of season, it was nothing more than a field to the passing critters that he had seen — two rabbits and a ground squirrel.

But he wasn’t in the mood for food, not today. It had been a good couple of days since he had eaten, but he was naturally lean. He was used to this time of year, his second on the road in his pursuit for The Great Something, and knew better than to be greedy. But there were far more pressing things on his mind as a bitter gust of wind served to remind him of what lied just around the corner, and his thoughts had turned swiftly towards settling for the winter. But where? Relic Lore had been very appeasing to him, but he was uncertain if it was that Great Something.

Stretching his limbs out on a particularly even patch of ground, he let his focus slip into darkness as he closed his eyes. His Great Something was nothing more than the place he wanted to devote himself to, to achieve the things that most wanted. Home, loyalty, friends, and perhaps even family if he were so lucky. Granted, he had family alive and well somewhere on the pathways behind him, but that was years in the past. He had drank from the cup he had chosen and never once regretted his choices.

Sinking down to the cool earth, the wanderer set off rolling in the grasses, mindful of the weak bristles and thorns that lied not too much further outside of his reach. Losing an eye or getting poked anywhere in particular by a disturbed berry bush was not in his interests, not now, not ever.

Just like that, Indru and the family had gone. His brother’s insistence that the water would not return had seemed unfathomable to the large Tainn, and stubbornly he had refused to believe his littermate. Niija had been quick to argue against Ruiko as well, her eyes boring in to him and he could tell she believed him foolish for staying behind. In fact, they all likely did.. spare Kinis, who despite Indru’s pleading, would not leave Ruiko’s side. It warmed the male’s heart with this realization, and in that moment the tawny wolf had become far more protective of the small boy than he had anything else in his life. Now, it was just the two of them against the world, and the new leader of Swift River was persistent in his current hunt to bring the small whelp home some food... or, even better, find a source of water.


He ended in the fields, his eyes distastefully regarding the berry bushes. The blackberries were gone now, as the frost of autumn had blanketed the land, and Ruiko uttered a gentle sigh. As disgusting as the berries were, they would have offered Kinis some form of liquid and hydration. With a low grunt, the hefty male shifted his frame, his eyes scouring the endless fields now in search of prey when his gaze fell upon a stranger. The wolf was settled comfortably against the ground, and while the Tainn wolf was loyally silent, he found he would need to approach this wolf. Uttering a low grunt, Ruiko began to pad closer to the tawny wolf, his muzzle lowering to a neutral stance. “Morning,” he offered, his tone rough from his lack of sleep. He had wanted to get out early so he could return to Kinis before noon approached. “Have you by chance come across any puddles of water around here?”

As he worked out the kinks in his body from a long night, Damascus was let in on the sound of someone approaching. He rolled right side up as the stranger approached, quickly taking note of his much larger appearance. He was more diluted in colour than Damascus, but they both had touches of agouti banding in their coat -- perhaps the only similarities that they had so far. His toffee-brown eyes studied the gold of the other's for a moment, and then Damascus offered him a friendly wag of his tail.

"Mornin' to you too," he returned evenly, a toothy smile turning up at the rough thrum he heard. His voice probably wasn't much better either. "And if by puddles, you mean dewdrops, well... whole field is covered with them. Or will be once the sun warms things up a bit more." The outlook was ever so grim, and there was another thing that they had in common. Endless search for water that wasn't a trickle or dried up, or miles away from wherever they decided to bed down for the night.

The soft wag of the tawny stranger at least reassured the large male that the wolf was not looking for a fight; at least, not yet. The answer he received was a dismal one, and with his tainted lips set in a grim expression, the regal wolf allowed his golden eyes to sweep the fields before them, trying to decide if the small amount of water that would appear as dew was enough to satiate his little brother. The boy was the weakest of his litter, and for that reason alone Ruiko worried about such harsh times. Perhaps.. it would have been in Kinis’ best interest to have followed Indru and the rest of the family.


“There has to be more options,” he responded, his tone becoming flat as his ears slid to his skull. His eyes sought out his companion once more, noting the rather familiar trace of fur; spare the paler hues along the stranger’s undersides. Disheartened, but never one to truly reveal his emotions, the Tainn bowed his muzzle momentarily in greeting. “I’m Ruiko.”

"I'm Damascus," he returned easily. "And brother, I certainly hope so. If things don't pick up soon I think we're all going to be packing up our bags and leaving. I've pretty much gathered that's exactly what everyone around here has done so far." Made sense, he couldn't lie about that. No water, no need for packs, because the land was going to die. If the land died, well, prey wouldn't exactly be hanging around in plentiful quantities. The last thing they needed was a Canadian desert with some semblance of seasons and tiny, nacreous-like oasis pockets here and there.

"I don't even think they're any packs around here," the nomad went on to say with a cant of his head. "It looks pretty promising to me when I first came through, but now I can see why there's no hustle and bustle. Where's the last place you saw water at?" For him, it had been one of the western creeks. It had been low and Damascus suspected that it had already dried up by now. Seemed likely anyway, because he had only gone back so far west to find that no water existed whatsoever.

Ruiko, who did well to cover his emotions, was slightly surprised by the other wolf’s reference to him as a ‘brother,’ and his wolfish brows lifted shortly before his features smoothed to his usual mask. The term itself was not uncommon to him, but it did stir the ache in his chest that Indru had left the valley, and he had been far too foolish to heed his sibling’s warning. In light of the direction of the conversation, the tawny male lifted his muzzle in a nod of confirmation; yes, everyone was leaving it seemed. In fact, many of the lone wolves had disappeared as well.. including a certain silver and black creature that Ruiko was keeping an eye out for.


Damascus’ spoken belief of the dispersed packs stirred a grunt from the hefty male, his creamy paws straightening his limbs as his muzzle gave a small shake. “My home, in the Swift River pack.” There was a pause as a sardonic smirk threatened to press to his dark lips. His home was now empty of not just water, but of family. “After it dried up, my brother decided to move the family out of Relic Lore. As you can see, I refuse to follow just yet.”

Oh, so there was a pack? Damascus did not mask the surprise that crossed his face, though he was truly surprised that any remained. Or that perhaps any had ever been there at all, given how empty the landscape was around them. Yet there was something in his companion's voice that said it obviously hadn't been, just like there may have been a mithridate to their problems. Unfortunately though, Damascus couldn't quite empathise with the loss of siblings, at least in the sense that they had simply up and left in light of the current situation.

"How interesting," he commented, adding, "what makes you stay when they would not?" He knew from his travels that there were honest doubters in every flock, but even he wasn't sure what would compel someone to stay. His time there felt as though it was dwindling; he hadn't found a reason in the world to stay. Beauty wasn't enough of a temptation, and companionship had always been something he had so easily shed in the search for that Great Something.

The wolf seemed surprised at Ruiko’s confirmation of a pack existing which stirred a blink from the large male. The regal wolf was unable to imagine life without a pack – no matter the dire circumstances of the land – and would have commented on the fact that another pack existed on the mountain, though refrained. It was not that he attempted to hide his uncle’s pack’s existence, but he was simply not an overly informative creature.


Damascus’ query was met with a sardonic snort that he was unable to hold back, and soon a light grin began to play upon the male’s emotionless features. It was an interesting question, more so because he could not quite grasp an answer that sounded logical. He loved the land. He was stubborn. He refused to believe Relic Lore would remain this way, despite that he was far from an optimist. Yet each answer sounded more ludicrous than the next, and in turn Ruiko offered a light shrug. “I wish I had a logical answer for you," he finally murmured, still racking his mind for an answer.

Maybe he hadn't a logical answer to give him, but Damscus wasn't going to believe that he was illogical. There was most likely some lilliputian logical reasoning for him to say. There was always something minute like that in all of them, something that drove them to do what they did. Instinct, maybe. "Perhaps you didn't wish to give up so easily on the land," he suggested, ever thinking of reasons for everyone else. It was also partially for himself, even though part of him said to get out of there while he still had the energy, Damascus was queerly drawn to the place.

Even if it didn't exactly scream out that it was the Great Something.

"How much of your pack remains? Or is it just you, the one who stayed behind against the odds?" Familial packs were common to his knowledge, but sometimes they took in vagrants. Sometimes all vagrants had were each other, anyway, and that was some sort of brotherly camaraderie in itself. After all, sociability aside, there had to be some reason why they were usually friendly with each other... right?

His companion’s suggestion caused Ruiko to glance at the male once more, though he made no further comment to his reasoning. Indru had saw it fit to move the pack, and while he had consistently remained at the side of his brother since they had been born, Ruiko had now broken free and refused to follow the wanderlust, despite the logical sense that was behind it.


“My younger brother stayed as well,” he murmured in turn, his tail giving an idle flick. The future seemed bleak at the moment, but as the days swept past, the River pack would slowly thrive and flourish. Ruiko held no doubt in that.. but he did wonder of his sanity for keeping his younger brother in a land that did not hold survival resources. It seemed beyond mad. After a small pause and a curious glance, the regal wolf gave a nod in the direction of the rogue wolf. “What of you? Why haven’t you passed through yet?”