emeralds and embers

Zera followed the wind right out of home. Her steps were first slow breaths in the pause between dusk and dawn, growing more rapid as the sky brightened. The dark Tainn never felt out of place in the thickening forest. It was her sacred ground, pure with energy, radiating the softest pulses of happiness. The long morning shadows slipped over her as she trailed through the wood, bringing beats of light into her yellow eyes. She didn't really know how far she was going, only that she was. Only that she felt that itch burn deep within, until she couldn't do anything but tear out of the Bend. Zera didn't care if anyone saw her momentum pointing straight out of territory, she was nearly a yearling, seasoned with the rest of them. The girl felt her heart fall back into an easy pattern as she shed her thoughts; and one by one, each breath settled in. The world beckoned her forth like this every morning. Though recently she'd felt the pack's parental gaze harden, and with her best efforts of respect, Zera kept herself confined within the reaches of the boundaries. It was painful, staying close like that, but her wandering soul could get used to pragmatic circumstances. She understood that much, at least. She found herself deep within the Fen, thirst lingering dryly at the back of her throat. She halted at the crest of a shallow hill, partially submerged in the damp estuary, to pull the clear water to her lips. Zera drank for a long time, felt the cold water seep numbly through her body, branching through the roots of her system. She loved it when it felt like that, when it was so cold you could feel it sinking through the bones. It had this stinging quality to it, so cold it kept the memories away for a little while. Made her isolated as the standalone shadows beneath each sparse tree. ZERA TAINN

It was a yearning that drove him forth into the forests of Relic Lore, and it was that hunger that urged him forward now when the path had become difficult to navigate.  Scraggly pine trees shot up wherever the light did touch, towering over their brothers where they fell.  Free space was waterlogged, and if cattails could spring up, they did.  It was becoming increasingly arduous to navigate.  His tail held out like rudder, helping the husky male steer through the muck and over rotting logs as he slowed to a walk.  With nowhere to be in particular, he did not balk about taking his time.  Slow and steady was better than slipping and falling on his face, muck up his nose and in his ears. So focused on his journey, he almost missed the sight of a black youth bending down for a drink of the fen's water.  The male paused where he stood, one ear sweeping back as he studied the younger animal.  She had the lanky appearance of youth, grown, but not quite filled out.  It seemed she had not noticed his presence, standing like a stone amongst the dense wood.  If she had, she did an excellent job hiding the detection. Curiosity taking a firm root in his chest, he changed his direction towards the younger wolf.  The footing was not sound enough to break into a job, but he kept a steady walk, chuffing once to avoid startling the other animal.  Closer, he realized she carried the scent of oak along her.  It was a deep, earthy scent, and with it was the presence of others, as well.  A pack wolf, he realized, and halted a few lengths from her, lest she take offense to his presence.  A pack wolf, all by her lonesome.  Something fraternal reared up in the corner of his mind, and he cleared his throat before speaking. "Are you unwell?  You look…shaken, miss."

(This post was last modified: May 13, 2015, 04:14 PM by Veho.)

The fen hummed with dark life, almost made the young Tainn give in to the guilt pulling with both arms on the bottom of her heart. Her parents' words lay hard and heavy as tombstones in the back of her mind, do not leave the Bend. Zera wished she could keep her wandering heart at bay, gain at least enough control over her windy ways to keep one desperate promise. But she itched inside, felt her chest caving with desire for new air. This excursion would be short. Only a few more minutes, she promised herself. The pool dripped delicately from her chin, falling quietly to the mire. This place had undiscovered beauty in it, just in the way it cradled around her in thickets of marsh grass and black mud. Zera knew that soon she'd be back for more. But her inhale caught the brief waft of something alive through that wall of saw grass. She felt her lungs catch, heart drowning as fear's stony arms pulled it under. Yellow eyes blared wide open into the blades as the soul picked closer, she could smell the cool wind on him, distant as a forlorn traveler. Zera heard his voice slip into her ears and she whirled around to face him, surprised to meet soft silver eyes. Besides being partially traumatized by the suspense of his arrival, she was unusually coy. She was in fact, unwell. To the extent of dashing headlong into the unknown parts of the Lore when coldblooded vermin raked the outskirts of her home, thirsty for more of her mother. Her stomach churned, and she wondered for a moment if she felt vomit creeping up into the back of her throat. The dark Tainn slouched backward, drawing up on the wall of thick saw grass. "Umm," she mumbled, eyes glancing around uneasily for a potential exit. Zera saw the slight hint of concern in the male's eyes then, and a part of her heaved a quick sigh. "If he was planning on hurting me, he would have already made his cuts..." She adjusted herself, realizing how stupid she must have looked cowering down like that. "I'm sorry! I think you just scared me, that's all." Still, she remained on edge, cocking a hind limb against the bank for leverage in case she'd need it. ZERA TAINN

Startling the child was the last thing the loner had intended to do. As she whirled about, belly lowering towards the grass, he paused mid-step. After a moment of thought, he halted, leaving several lengths between himself and the yearling. She was as black as coal, the image of a shadow within the peace of the fen. A breath of silence washed between them, whispering between blades of grass before the pup found a whisper of courage. She righted herself and finally spoke, but that spark was dampened by the crook in her leg, indicating to him she still had half a mind to run. Carefully, he watched her. His ears swiveled forward with interest – his tail remained in a neutral, casual position. Harm and terror were the last things he wanted to bring upon anyone, let alone one lost youth. Clearing his throat, he inclined his head. "Please do forgive me for that, miss. I hadn't meant to startle you. I was concerned. You looked…very distant," he murmured, careful to keep his voice an even tenor. After a moment, he realized perhaps that would do nothing to make her feel more comfortable. What was he but a stranger appeared from the mist? "I'm Veho," he introduced himself after a moment, ears swiveling. "I only recently traveled to the forest here. I've been exploring since. Are you sure you're alright?" She looked a bit young to be on his own – though he supposed many wolves did depart their birth packs when they roughly a year old. Perhaps she'd had a fight with someone – or been run out by a change in power. If he could help her-- Well, first she'd have to relax a little.

Slowly, Zera realized that she wasn't scared of the tawny male and his kind silver eyes. She was really fearing her own nebulous thoughts, how she'd come all this way without thinking, without observing. If she paid any mind to the wind that bestowed his foreign scent, the sound of his paws in the mushy grass, even where she was going, she might have had the change to see him first. She could never be sure what ghastly minds plagued the land and swept Nayeli from their own shoreline. She never considered how they could be right in her path, lurking in the shadows of their own home. Zera suppressed the urge to bite her tail, kick herself. What the hell was she thinking when she decided to walk past the guarding words of her elders, her own loving blood? If this kind-faced man had any intention to rip her to shreds, well she certainly deserved it for her naive disobedience. A part of her youthful brain had a nagging afterthought of Darrah, of course. How he was able to slip from the Bend unnoticed and unpunished was beyond her. She guessed it was his kiss-up behavior from birth that blessed him with the privileges she would never have the respect to own. It made her cringe inwardly, how just because she was a few minutes younger and female, the outer reaches were off limits. Hell, she was a yearling now. She had the right to do whatever she pleased. But Zera was a yearling without focus - any former direction altered at the shift of wind. No spontaneity or wistful heartbeat could help her in the hands of evil. Her parents knew that much. But something about her heart could change so fast when she finally understood a situation. Something about her changed when she saw concern painted broadly on Veho's features. He looked just as frightened as she was and even in the same way: inward. Zera could read his silvered irises fluently from a full year of practice with her mother's, and she saw regret glittering in the overcast pools. She knew now that he was scared of his own reaction, just as she was seconds earlier. This eased her instantly, and she let her hackles fall, and her cocked limb rest. She offered a small tail wag, and lifted it friendlily, an effort to show him she was truly just surprised. Please do forgive me for that, miss. I hadn't meant to startle you. I was concerned. You looked…very distant. And at that she felt much better. Somehow blatant answers were always safer than assumptions. Zera hoped he knew she forgave him, and maybe that he'd been able to read guilt out of her own sunny eyes. "It's okay, really... I was just zoned-out," she assured, nodding her head with her words. She smiled wholeheartedly, trying her best not to laugh at how ridiculously awkward this was all becoming. "Nice to meet you, Veho. I'm Zera Tainn from Oak Tree Be-" she cut herself off, remembering the guardian words of her mother and father. She remembered her mother's ringing voice at the break of winter and how warm she was to embrace for the first time in months of grief. "Sorry I meant Fen. Oak Tree Fen," she nobly lied, proudly patting herself on the back for the clever words that might save her home. ZERA TAINN

Even the tiniest of gestures could shift the tone of the unspoken conversation between them. A small wag of Zera's tail did not go unnoticed, and the older wolf responded in turn. His tail remained low, ears pressed forward as he searched her features. The intense fear had disappeared from her gorgeous sunshine eyes – his expression was a mirror of her own. Tension slipped free from his limbs, slithering through the pads of his paws and down into the moist, mossy earth. Behind him, his full flag shook again, and he took one, only one step towards the yearling. "Ah. I understand. My sister was once much the same way – a dreamer, that one." Neha was a lovely spirit, if quiet and sickly for the short duration of her life. The grey wolf could still see her as if it was only yestreen. Her memory still brought a hollow pang to his chest as he sighed softly, offering his lost sibling a moment of his thought. While there was nothing he could have done to prevent sickness from taking her back to their ancestors, it still hurt to wonder what she might be like these days if she'd recovered instead. Veho often wondered if he could have done something that might have restored some of her health— --but now he was the one getting lost in his thoughts. "It is nice to meet you, Zera of Oak Tree Fen," he rumbled, taking her at her word. The lone wolf spared one glance around, and tipped his head. "A mighty curious place to make a home, if you don't mind me saying so. Very wet ground. Does your den flood, when the summer rains come?" he wondered aloud, looking a bit sheepish at the question. "I grew up on the plains, myself. The ground was never so wet. We were more liable to suffer drought – or wildfire."