The Deep Forest unconditionally

Backdated to September 9th for @Lila

After her first night alone out of territory Mabel wanted nothing more desperately than to get back home. This adventuring thing wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, and what was more she was getting hungry. The short lessons she had had about tracking small prey while alone seemed to be erased from her memory and she was hopeless tracking through the woods. Hoping for a landmark she would recognize or a meal that she could catch and so far she had come up empty pawed in both regards.

The trees seemed to be getting denser if that was possible and even darker than before, soon dusk would turn into twilight and she would be alone for a second night. Nervous paranoia was her only company and every sound seemed like a threat, every whisper on the wind the breath of a predator stalking her through the trees. Was this how Ayla felt all the time? Mabel certainly didn’t like it and if she ever made it home she would take it easier on her. At least for a couple of weeks.

A twig snapped somewhere in the distance and it startled the pup into a brisk trot, the whites of her eyes showing against her brown irises. But, with the faster pace her disproportionate paws grew clumsier and caught on a root, sending her tumbling paws over tail into the deep undergrowth. At this Mabel started to cry, she was never getting home.

(This post was last modified: Sep 21, 2017, 03:51 AM by Mabel.)

It didn't take much to settle into the Bend. But, it wasn't necessarily a smooth transition when her siblings had to adapt to yet another older sister. Especially, since Lila was not a hop, skip, and a jump away. She was much closer, a real adjustment. The yearling found no qualms letting time be the remedy. After all she knew a little bit what it was like to share her mother, be uncertain where she fell in line with the pack as a whole.

Last night Mabel, the oldest and boldest had not returned home. Lila was already floored to find her, but when her mother specifically asked her to do so under the radar she was determined to do so tenfold as quickly as possible. What better way to prove herself?

With the clues she set fourth with haste. She'd gotten turned around in her short leg days, and could only try to imagine what spending a night alone would have felt like then. The dark wolf's stride remained rapid as she made her way south. More and more certain she was on the right track.

Through the fading light of the dropping sun, she could see a small chunk of light silver in the undergrowth. In this place it stuck out among the darkness, and Lila breathed a silent sigh of relief. She hadn't detected the smell of anyone else, or blood. Maybe, other than being a little dazed Mabel was okay. Much as she wanted to run over and scoop her up, she didn't want to frighten her more. Nor make her feel smaller than she was so she called out. "Mabel! Where are you?"

What the hell was it with these woods that every time she hit the ground suddenly all the noises around her sounded like pawsteps? This time it sounded much bigger than the ones that Sachiel had made when he had found her last night. Oh god. This could really be it this time, Mom and Dad had told her a thousand times not to go wandering and she had anyways and now she was never going to see any of them ever again. If only she was more of a baby like Ayla was! Mabel tried to stifle her sobs in hopes whoever it was would just pass her by and managed to mostly cry silently except for the occasional whimper.

Unfortunately for her wolves didn’t need their ears to find what they were looking for and there was no disguising her childish scent alone in the woods. Fortunately for her it was only Lila who found her. At the sound of her older sister’s voice the creamy pup’s head whipped up and her brown eyes did their best to seek out her dark pelt from within the dim murk. ”I’m over here! Over here!” She shouted, perhaps a little too loudly but she still had not been able to locate where her sister stood. Much to her embarrassment her voice cracked. Great now Lila would know what a baby she was.

Mabel liked Lila, she seemed nice and she played games with them when she wasn’t with Papa but often the sight of her reminded the pup what a baby she was. Lila had gone on adventures all on her own and come back, which the Donata clearly had failed to do and being found by her now bruised her ego a bit. But, not enough that she didn’t get to her paws to try frantically to find the Aquila. Getting home to Mom was more important than the shame she felt like a hot stone in her belly.

There was only a small note of hesitation, until Mabel answered. Then, she easily cut the distance to reach her. Thick tail gave happy waves she wouldn't be delivering any terrible news. Swiftly, dark nose brushed against her light, silver crown, planting a kiss. All while inhaling her scent to discern what she may have encountered.

Now, she was at a cross road to build upon what Mabel might be feeling or steer toward making light of it. Could she easily bend and break?

Humiliation wasn't a foreign feeling to her, nor failure. But, the time she'd gotten lost she hadn't had Kyna or mother come to her rescue to be hit with shame. She'd merely got set back on the right path by a stranger, and waited a long and good time to do that again. Getting lost seemed like an old memory.

"Had your fun?" she faintly spoke. A hint of harshness in the depths of her dark facade. She'd long learn why scolding was a thing, but not how easily it wanted to twist off her tongue. Mabel was here cause words had not been enough. For now she would try to keep her own in check.

"Sis, if we'are gonna get back home where do we start?"

sorry Mabel is a butt

Mabel wanted to tell her sister about the boy Sachiel she had met and how they had had fun the night before but she bit the words back. The tone might have only held the slightest harshness but the pup heard the sternness anyways. The hot shame stone doubled in size in her stomach and she wondered how she could carry it home. If this was how Lila felt her mother would certainly be a hundred times worse and her dad would be disappointed in her. That would be even worse than the yelling.

Brown eyes dropped down in embarrassment and Mabel didn’t answer her sister, instead she scuffed her paws upon the ground. She hated feeling like this, all she had done was make a mistake it wasn’t the end of the world! Her usual mechanism was beginning to kick in, to protect her ego the shame was welling into anger, growing up her chest and threatening to explode. So when Lila asked her a question the pup set her jaw and looked directly up into the blue eyes in silent defiance. Mom could lecture her if she wanted, but she wasn’t going to play into the yearlings game. Besides, who did she think she was? She wasn’t even around for the first few months and now she wanted to come and scold her for doing exactly what she had done?

no worreis it's good for them

Silence was a new one. She'd expected some kind of retort, or for her to let go of her brave face. Release the torment she may have felt. Be happy she even got to return home. Whatever was going on behind the pale face she could only imagine.

When Mabel gave her the look, a silent challenge, she didn't need to guess any more. Lila wasn't about to take it lightly. They were gonna do this the hard way. She wasn't going to go through hoops for her little sister. Bend to her will like the rest. Blue eyes narrowed, and the skin around her muzzle crinkled. "Fine. You think I wanted to come out here? Wondering if I was gonna find pieces of you over the forest?" The long hairs along her spine raised, and she had to try not to let her teeth click together. Had to stop the growl that burned under her skin. Instead she released the bit of air she'd been holding before starting again."They'll just be happy you're okay. But, maybe you should stay here longer. You got lost by yourself, you'll find home by yourself right?" The young Aquila glared, wanting to just pick her up, give her a shake, and pack her back. But, she turned on heel to prevent going that far, and began walking a long, quick stride.

(This post was last modified: Dec 13, 2017, 08:09 PM by Lila. Edit Reason: typoshereandthere )

This may have started with silent defiance, a challenge with no words spoken but the anger inside Mabel was continuing to rise. Like the mercury in a thermometer on in the middle of a drought, it got higher and higher until it threatened to break the glass. Muscles tensed beneath her cream coloured coat until they were trembling from the exertion of trying to stay perfectly still. Stay exactly still. Like how mom did when she caught them doing something they shouldn’t be and just stared at them until they noticed and admitted to everything.

But, that couldn’t last forever. The first few words from Lila were enough to send the mercury flying everywhere as the glass shattered into a million pieces. Mabel continued her silent stare until the yearling turned away and she could hold her childish composure no longer, ”Like you even care!” She wanted to lunge forward and bite the dark legs as she would have done to her agemates but she knew a physical fight would be futile. She was much too small.

That left only her words, ”You would only be upset because Mom would be mad at you if I got hurt. You couldn’t care any less.” Maybe she was wrong, she had never stopped to even consider this was a possibility. But in the child’s mind that was true, Lila was just a teenager who spent all her time with her grandfather and had been gone for months.

Words were thrown at her. But, she didn't warrant a response, little by little she distanced herself. Just enough to try to shut down her emotions, but keep her sister in site. She'd never once felt indifferent to any of them, or entirely jealous. She'd only had a smidgen because they had each other. Everything else was pretty much the same. Mother,home, Serach, and pack.

Her tracks finally stalled, and she faced the pale child. Lila never hated Kyna for going on her own adventures, not at first. But, was that how Mabel saw her? She'd picked quite the choice of words to hit her with. The Aquila wanted to correct her in all manners. Assure her mother would do no such thing, but just thinking back to that age.

Proud shoulders slumped in defeat. A tired sigh. "I do care you know," she began, her face softening. "I was glad when I knew you were all coming. That I wouldn't be alone." The gap in age made things harder than she realized, and her time away had caused harm. Could she fix things? Should she try? Yes she thought. She needed to even if it did little good.

"I'm not great at this sister thing obviously. But, you are. What do I do to prove I care?"

(This post was last modified: Dec 13, 2017, 08:28 PM by Lila.)

Fade out in your next post? <3

For a moment Mabel thought that maybe Lila hadn’t heard her and would walk off into the forest and that would be it. But then she saw the paws slow and the dark shoulders slump down silently. The pup felt a sick sense of pride that maybe she was going to win this argument despite her sister having the upper paw. She didn’t feel guilty that her words might have caused wounds, Lila had been the one to leave and display how little she cared about their family.

Then, she turned. The silence was broken and Mabel was taken aback by the words. Pale mouth dropped open before closing a few times similar to that of a fish bobbing through the stream near their home. She had never thought about what it would like to be alone. Sure, her siblings annoyed her and she sometimes wished she was an only child but she would never really want that, never really wanted to be alone.

Swallowing thickly in an attempt to clear the regret that had formed a lump in her throat Mabel couldn’t meet her older sister’s eyes. Shuffling her paws awkwardly as she moved to catch up she brushed past her, embarrassed at the display of emotion, ”Just, just don’t leave anymore.” Then raising her muzzle as if the confrontation had not happened Mabel began to pick up the pace, she wanted to get home.