Cedarwood Forest The Sound of Heartbreak...

OOC: SHooooooo.........This is kinda to explain my lack of muse/Vlars IC absence.. So! Here we go.. lol Wall o' text warning....my muse ate me. >.>;

The fight with Kiche had left her with a moderate bite wound at the base of her throat - a wound enough that she instinctively wanted to get away from other wolves to recuperate - cover her weakness. Shortly after the group had parted, the white second had disappeared, her long legs carrying her through the well known trees and to the southern borders. She had spent the following night tucked in the hollow made by a fallen tree, taking shelter from the elements while thinking over her plan of action. Come that morning, it found the white giant digging and scratching at the base of a large, moss covered boulder to hollow out first a small indentation enough to lay her weary body in, then slowly digging it out over the course of the next few days. During those few days, she trekked back to the pack lands and used her scent to reinforce the borders - keep them safe and secured.

It was a little over four days before she ventured into the marsh, her wound still scabbing over - seeping blood and other fluids actively. Had she been thinking properly, she wouldn't have gone so far into the marshes, but unfortunately for her..she wasn't thinking, and brazenly went to explore the marsh south of the pack lands. Vlarindara's trek had been easy at first.. simple, no problems as her feet picked out the most solid path to walk on. The whooping call of some kind of bird brought the females head up, amber eyes focusing on it and watching its path across the sky as her paws continued to walk. A move that would damn near cost her her life in the end. Her right front paw slipped and toppled her off the steadily degrading pathway and throwing her into a rather wet, gooey puddle of dirt.

Vlarindara flailed to right herself, to climb out of the puddle, only to find that her struggles were increasing the puddles grip on her sides and fur. Oh no... Flash sand. The white female couldn't stop the terrified whine from escaping her muzzle as she forced herself to stop thrashing about like some landed fish and think, to concentrate. She remembered once being told about flash sand - a puddle of dirt that would suck you in if you got caught in it, and the harder you struggled, the faster you sank. Her instincts warred with her mind - telling her to throw her weight around and get loose from the sticky stuff... Her mind was telling her to stay calm and look for a way out.

Cold fear gripped her heart, fogging her mind and leaving nothing but instinct - the pure fear.. the need to be free. Vlarindara thrashed around like a demon, only serving to sink herself further so that only her head, the top of her shoulders and portion of her neck was above the miring bog. It was that immobilization that allowed her to 'come back' to herself and realize she could hear a high, unending keening whine ...and then realized that it was coming from her. The white wolf clamped her jaws shut and closed her eyes, feeling the flash sand pulling her down deeper while she thought, her shoulders no longer visible and only the neck and head of the white lady were visible.

Think...think... Breathe..It was getting harder to breathe, the sand felt like it was crushing against her ribs, pushing the air from her lungs to further force her to stop her struggles, force her to loose her desperate hold on life. Vlarindara opened her eyes and glanced around, finding that she wasn't really that far from the pathway she'd been on before...If she could just.. get to it. Slowly, she forced her right front leg to move through the flash sand - then her left hind leg, then her left front...then her right hind leg. With each 'step' she made it a little closer to the edge, but she also sank a little more. Another set of 'steps' brought her even closer to the edge, but now she couldn't see where she was going. Only her muzzle was sticking up out of the sand, her attempts to get free having sealed her fate.

She couldn't give up - she wouldn't... Vlarindara repeated the process another time, just barely feeling her front leg scraping something more solid than the sucking, eating flash sand that held her in a vice grip. By now, her lungs were burning, fluid running down her nose from where she was heaving the gunk from the sands - the black tip of her nose the only thing to tell any who might pass by that there was something mired within the space. Fear was beginning to grip the white female once again as her next moved leg brought her nose under the surface leaving her with no way to breath - no way out.. and no sunlight. Would this be her end? Really? had pride led to this?!

NO! She refused. With one last surge of strength and determination, the white female forced herself towards her destination - she was already completely submerged...what would she stand to lose? Her front paws touched something most CERTAINLY more solid than the sand. Vlarindara flailed as much as she could, her claws digging in and dragging her to the surface. The sweet rush of air to her clogged nose and mouth was a deliverance if she'd ever felt one. At first, she just stayed where she was, gasping for breath - knowing that the sand was pouring out of her nose and clinging to her teeth and tongue. Vile tasting stuff... but it was nothing compared to the taste of defeat she'd had earlier.

It took her a good three hours to pull herself from the flash sand, but she managed it, laying on the more solid ground next to it panting and heaving with exhaustion. Her legs were shaking something fierce, and she knew her lungs would have to recuperate form the exertion required of such a monumental task. The memory of being crushed by an invisible hand of sand made the large female shudder in fear as she lay there, allowing herself to regain her strength. She had to get out of this bog..

After laying there for what seemed like forever, the white beast got to her feet and made her way back towards the borders of Grizzly Hollow territory. The trip took her longer than it might have normally, with the dirt clinging to her fur, the flash sand having packed itself into every imaginable place it could have. She stopped on her second day, the hot and cold flashes causing her to have to sit before she dropped where she stood. This wasn't good - these flashes of temperature change were things she was used to.. she knew what this was. Lifting her head, she could tell that the pack lands were another two days away at this speed... and the den further still.. If she could just get into their borders.. someone would find her...right?

Unfortunately for Vlarindara, she never made it to the borders of Grizzly Hollow. The next morning found the white female barely able to get to her feet, curled up in a miserable ball beneath a bush of some kind. Her eyes were seemingly glued shut - and it had taken her what felt like hours of rubbing her paws over them to get them to open - and when she did, it caused searing pain to course through her head prompting her to close them right away. Why..? Vlarindara let loose a keening whine despite herself before she realized and cut it off harshly. No.. She would *NOT* whine.. this was her doing... her pride that made her leave the packs bosom after having been injured by Kiche... pride to not let them see her injured in such a way.. Now look at her.

Vlarindara's next memories were flashes...glimpses.. pieces she couldn't begin to put together. Some kind of screaming from some animal or another... shakes that rattled her hard enough to cause her teeth to bite her own tongue, a haze across her vision - seeing images of Raigo playing around with puppies... perhaps that was a dream.. Raigo was gone.. Raigo...It was the thoughts of Raigo that brought the white female back to full awareness - or as aware as she could be when she was ill to realize a few things.. She could hardly move.. had lost weight - and fur on her right side.. the side she had collapsed onto when she'd reached shelter. Wonderful... But, a good sign was her stomach - it was pinched with hunger, which meant her body had feeling to devote to realizing it was hungry instead of fighting off the infection that had come about because her neck was still an open wound.

Slowly, she got to her feet and managed to make it a few paces outside the makeshift den before collapsing on shaking legs. Her illness had raged for what felt like forever, but in reality was a little over a weak - but she could finally hunt.. find herself something to eat. Even if it had been scavenged from the kill of a bear or some other predator - food was food. Vlarindara found that she had the strength to move - albeit slowly...And began her way back towards the pack lands.. were they even *her* pack lands anymore? No.. she supposed not. The white female wasn't sure how long she'd really been gone - she could only guess...

A total of three weeks had passed since her injury at Kiche's paws.. a total of three weeks since she had disappeared - but she was moving back, finally. Vlarindara came to a halt on the south edge of Grizzly Hollow's pack boundaries and took a careful sniff, as she had suspected - her scent had washed nearly completely from the borders of Grizzly Hollow... would they even accept her back? A weary sigh escaped the once again thin white female as she shifted, pulling away from the pack borders to bring herself a safe distance away... where she settled carefully down near a tree. Her fur was matted and unkempt, even her face and neck looking haggard. The wound from Kiche had begun to heal - but was a crusted mess of scabbing and dark, knotted fur near her throat.

Vlarindara was sure she looked nothing like herself - with what amounted to bed sores on her right side from when the infection raged its strongest - her weight had dropped enough that she would hardly recognize herself..had she seen her visage in a mirror. It.. was time to face the music - perhaps there were pups in the den.. maybe none of them would hear her and she could just... move on - perhaps follow Raigo's example and leave Relic Lore. The white loner lifted her head up and let a trail of notes escape her muzzle, to drift into the gathering dark of evening.

They were...mournful perhaps.. lost, certainly... if it had to be described in a word - heartbreak. She had left her pack... such a thing was as good as treason in her eyes - Even that traitor KICHE would have the right to run her off the borders... send her packing with her tail between her legs. Should she have been able to cry, the once proud second would have... but as it were, she simply let her call go out across the treeline - wavering to a slow warbling note of finality. There....if no one came to investigate.. she would save them the trouble of running her out themselves.. and walk away. She dropped down to her stomach near the tree, curling her plumed and matted tail around her feet, her head dropping wearily to the ground between her paws.

Despite the fact that her form was tucked in next to a tree about fifty feet from the pack borders - it was green and brown out now instead of the white of snow... her white pelt would be painfully obvious..even if it was matted with grungy browns, blacks and even some greens where she'd traveled through sludgy waters or slept on moss.

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The birth of his children, of Pangur's children, coupled with the reaction from the other members of the cult, had set Kiche on edge. When he was around the cult-heathens, he now had to maintain a straight face, model posture, he had to be perfect. But now that he was alone, wandering amongst the haphazard trunks, he let himself sigh, but his guard was not down. Angry, bitter, disgusted thoughts that he had shoved aside now floated unbidden to the forefront of his mind. He wanted those puppies, he <i>needed</i> those puppies. And whether those damn savages realized it or not: those puppies needed <i>him.</i> He would not just roll over and kiss their asses just so they could throw their kids into a cavern of fire and brimstone. Something would have to be done. He would have to discuss this with Borden.

A strange and sudden noise pierced and raped the sound waves, and Kiche's skin crawled. It was that <i>howling</i> that Aisling had talked about once. <i>Disgusting</i> But while he did not understand or comprehend any particular message in the dissonance, he did know one thing: a savage was near. His hackles rose and his face creased. He did not want any more damn savages near God's children, there was too many as it stood, and they were already making it hard for Kiche to get close to them. No. This infidel would have to go. Kiche veered wildly from his aimless course and took off in the direction of that ugly sound.

A nasty, evil smell assaulted his nose as he came nearer and nearer to the heathen. It smelled like old sickness, dirty wolf, godlessness. And the sight that manifested suddenly before his eyes was no better. It was a tattered, broken, ugly, dirty, bloody heathen who had curled up beside a tree as if she was resigned to whatever fate would soon be hers. Death, most likely. But seeing her lying there, dingy and nasty like a piece of garbage, infuriated Kiche. No way in <i>hell</i> was this damn savage going to get <i>anywhere</i> near his children. "<b>Get the fuck out of here, savage!</b>" He cried as he loomed over the half-dead beast, his teeth snapping.
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OOC: AHAHAHAAHHA I love you Sarah..xD

Of all the wolves she had thought to meet - the last was Kiche. Vlarindara lay as still as she could when the wolf emerged from the forests. From this distance, it was hard to tell who it was really - until he started shouting about heathens and leaving. As the large male came towards her - his posture made it evident that she was NOT welcome within the lands of Grizzly Hollow any longer. Before he even reached her, the white lady was on her feet and backing away slowly, tail curled about as tightly between her legs as she could get it, over large ears having fallen limply over her neck.

A soft whine escaped her throat as she focused amber eyes on the advancing form of the irate wolf. She kept her posture lower to the ground, almost belly crawling backwards away from him the closer he got. It was the snapping snarl of leaving that made up her mind for her - and the fact that he'd already bitten her once...what was to stop him from doing it again? The thought of standing her ground and asserting her position over him once again touched her mind, but she couldn't... what if the alphas had told the pack that she was a traitor?

Another whine escaped the dirtied female before she lowered herself yet further still, the crawling backwards that she was doing coming to a halt while she lifted her eyes to look at Kiche's most dangerous weapon - his teeth. Had Jaysyek and Borden told the wolves of Grizzly Hollow that she was to be chased out at first sight? Vlarindara couldn't imagine either of them saying such a thing - but with new pups on the way..if not already in the birthing den.. she wasn't sure what they could or would say. A last ditch effort to show that she was no threat to the pack, or the pups, the white female whined once again as she did the unthinkable - she went belly up.. For *KICHE* of all things...Well..if it perhaps got her back in her home...Maybe he would understand?

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While the piece of trash did get up and stumble backwards a few paces, she did not leave, and this would not do. If words would not do, there was no other way to convey his meaning than through <i>her</i> language — <i>heathen</i> language. The language of teeth and snarls and Satan. All in the name of the puppies. Up until recently, Kiche never would have considered doing this, not in his life time. And although it was a particularly <i>savage</i> practice to increase border security after the pups' birth, Kiche was unaware. It was just something he felt he had to do. Serve God, protect the puppies, absolution would wait. Action, however, the flash of his teeth, a slight lunge forward —these would be his words.

Except her next action caught him completely off guard. She rolled over on her stomach, and he was dumbfounded. He did not understand the meaning of this. While he had been living in this cult around heathens for some time now, and Aisling had tried to explain plenty to him, he had never seen... <i>this</i> before, and it confused him. The air was charged with with the promise of violence as Kiche paused, looming over her with a curious look on his face. <i>Does it matter what it means?</i>

No.

No matter what it meant, she was still here, and Kiche had told her very clearly to <i>leave</i>. Snarling, he plunged his head downward, his fangs aimed for her ears or muzzle or face or legs or throat or... <i>Anything.</i> He didn't care what he hurt, all he wanted was for her to go away.
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OOC: RAWR KICHE! XD Don't get near those poops! :o RUNN AWWAAAYYY!! :O

She had hoped that showing submission to the irate male would have let him back away - but she should have known better. This was KICHE she was talking about! As he charged inwards at her - the white beast yelped in pain as his teeth found her muzzle, tearing a long, jagged stripe down the length of her nose. Vlarindara was lucky it hadn't taken her eye - with as close to the orb as the injury was, but it got the point across. She scrambled to her feet and did what she had done for years... tucked tail and ran.

The blood staining the right side of her muzzle also left a trail behind her as she quite literally galloped away from the iron jaws of the pack member. Over large ears pinned back against her neck, her flag-like tail streaming out behind her. Front legs passed in between her hind ones as she moved, her paws barely hitting the ground before they were off again. No..it was obvious that she was no longer welcome in these lands..So she did what any smart wolf would do - she left them..

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His jaws struck her muzzle, scarping against the thinly veiled cartilage. A metallic taste seeped into his mouth, a scarlet colour splashed his teeth. He didn't like this at all. This was very wrong. At the same time, though, it was very, <i>very</i> necessary. No matter what, his first priority was getting this savage out of here. Her existence was a threat, and if she would not leave, that threat had to be extinguished. She looked ragged and sickly, probably diseased. Diseases were just as contagious as morals.

But as elusive as a dream, intangible as a cloud, she slipped from his grasp in an instant. On her paws in seconds, she was suddenly very agile for such a broken looking bag of bones. Just a flicker of dirty white, she disappeared into a shroud of dark undergrowth. A low, victorious growl rumbled within Kiche. It was satisfying to be on the opposite end of these kids of encounters. It felt good to run the heathens off. For all the world content, Kiche slowly turned around and trotted at a most leisurely, plucky gait back to the den.
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