torch song

At her questioning sound, he merely nods. He couldn't recall its name, it had merely been referred to as "Home". All he recalled was that it was well lit, even though the lights were far away, and there was always human noise. Too many smells, but growing up there, he could pick through them. But it was foolish, stealing from them. They might have been stranger creatures, but they were certainly just as smart, probably smarter than he was. They had managed to capture him and move him ALL without his knowledge...More or less. He listened silently interested as she spoke of her home, a place he didn't recognize. From the way she said its name, it sounded impressive. <b style="color:#51b85f">"Why did yo leave?" He asked, curiously. <b style="color:#51b85f">"If you don't mind my asking. I was removed forcefully from my home." There was no sadness in his voice, though perhaps slight resignation. But it was merely his own offering of information in exchange for hers. And perhaps something more. He supposed he could understand it now, somehow, but why would anyone choose to leave the place in which they were raised? At least if it seemed to be a decent place. <b style="color:#51b85f">"speech."

He would ask why she had left and there was a moment of reluctance from her. However, he would continue speaking of his own place, having been forcefully removed, to where she would wonder exactly 'why and whom had done it' but remained silent for the moment. If he was willing to give up some of his own information, surely she could offer the same to him in turn. Elettra was all about equal trade, in whatever form. Nothing in life had ever been free, at least not on her end.
She takes a moment to think back then to her country of Torbine, the nation which she lived in, and those few bands which were allowed to live there. Her mother had fought tooth and claw scrapping her way to the top of the pack by her darker, less 'pure' coloration. Elettra not only was darker, but the only woman amongst four brothers. She had fought ruthlessly, furiously, and even to the death at times, to make herself a placement within those lands. She had hated, she had friends, had been betrayed, and had even fallen in love, much feelings which many might not even think her capable in these new lands.
“The teachings in our nation is strict and unyielding. It was harsh, but I learned much and I regret nothing of all I have learned and accomplished there. My family is royalty there, but I sought a path for myself. My own legacy.” She wanted to accomplish what her parents had, wanted to walk a path with that same unrelenting power; feared, envied, admired, and loved. She wanted to be known as much as they were (and no longer shadowed by her brothers and for her color) and become a legend in her own right.

Alex, again, fell into silence as Elettra spoke. Her words, although shaded, were deeply interesting to him. Home and Relic Lore were the only places he really knew. The time he spent with the pack he'd found beyond these lands were not too different from the teachings of this land and would be grouped as such. He could imagine such different lands, but to hear them truly existing was a completely different thing. It would be foolish of him to think that every land was like this one or Home, of course.

<b style="color:#51b85f">"You seem different from the rest of the Hollow wolves." He commented, nodding his head slightly. <b style="color:#51b85f">"It's an honorable thing, a brave act, to run from something like that." His head tipped up again, watching the sky glow and twist. <b style="color:#51b85f">"The humans took me from my home, and when I really came to, I was here. Well, the forest." Alex said, his voice rather low. <b style="color:#51b85f">"I didn't want to be here. I was a coward, and hardly faced my fate with honor." Exhaling, his eyes didn't move from the sky. <b style="color:#51b85f">"speech."

He mentioned her difference and she said nothing, even going as far to turning her head away from him and back onto the opening of the small den. Still, the skies danced, even brighter now, as the sun fell away from the sky. The greens would shift and turn to blues, and back again, with only a delicate glow of golden yellow upon the deep navy sky as the very remnants of sun's light. She was different and she was bitterly learning more and more each day that she was. She was both prideful of her nature brought by her family and both irritated by it. She was the black sheep amongst the Hollow crowd, despite her ranking and the trust (seemingly slipping) her leader held to her. She would never be like them and surely, never fully accepted. She was not a soft hearten lady. She spoke properly, but not sweetly. She only gaze if given in return, such a treatment she had always known. Her respect went as far as one's respect to her. And when hurt, or even worse, when trust was broken, it would never return. But she was loyal to a fault, unyielding in herself to do anything for those whom she called her allies. She was strong, powerful, determined and just. She never told a lie and never turned back on those whom she called a friend. But such qualities seemed to be overlooked by those of seemingly 'darker' nature. To Elettra's dismay, much of the wolves of the Lore were too trusting, childish, and fickle.
When he speaks of her, and then himself, her ears once more fold to her skull, her eyes drifting away from the skies and to his face, dancing with the color of the northern lights over his pale fur. She was surprised he had survived his interaction with the humans by the way others had spoken of them towards her and was intrigued that he had, despite his glum feelings of himself. "Yet surely, you had your chance at redemption?" Where she was only the second of the Hollow, she was proud of all which she had done for the pack, even as being a former princess of the land she had been birthed. However, with more and more members she distrusted coming into the pack-lands, Elettra felt she had to watch her back even in the heart of her own home. Soon, she knew, she would be forced upon another act of departure for the better of herself. But where she would go? What she would do? She sighs to the very thought, though continues on with her conversation none the less. "After all, you had done what many wolves seek- created your own pack, founded your own legacy. I have heard little, but only well things. Surely, your cowardice was slain by this act of strength?" In ways, she envied such a thing, that she had yet to accomplish herself. And how long would he be willing to stay here, in this place, as a subordinate when he had once been king?

Alexander wondered what she'd heard that caused her to have so much faith in his past. It almost made him feel more ashamed of the events that had come to pass. It had taken him quite some time to become a good leader, and even at the very end he wondered if he'd really been a good one. He kept his head turned towards the sky, though his eyes flicked in her direction as she spoke. While there was no frown upon his face, he did seem slightly disappointed. What she said was only partly true. Of course, Midnight Plateau would not be so quickly forgotten, which means, perhaps, in the end, he had been a good leader. Unless such memories were infamous. His shoulders shuffled, and he looked back up at the sky.

<b style="color:#51b85f">"I was just a kid that was handed something that he wasn't expecting. Though, I suppose, in the end, I was redeemed. I'd certainly grown up." The smallest of smiles seemed to break along his muzzle, and he suddenly felt oddly uncomfortable here. Just like he had when he'd survived the fall and had gone far away from here. Perhaps after all that time with power, it was truly hard to go back. His time here would be short-lived. He would much rather rule over himself than be ruled over by another, no matter how much he trusted and favored Jaysyek. <b style="color:#51b85f">"speech."

"Life is filled with twists and turns of the never-ending unexpected. I've learned, as you and I'm sure, everyone else shall, if not already...." She spoke on behalf of him more of less 'falling into leadership' then having actually gained it, something which Elettra would have rather preferred for herself. There was nothing handed to her where she lived, where even fighting for your meal each night was a must to keep yourself prepared for the worst. Maybe he had not been expecting to become a leader, but he had none the less successfully established himself a pack, until of course, his fall and the cougar down with him. She wonders now, a moment, if that since he had survived, the cougar had, too?

"Growing up came quickly for me..." She began, not even beginning to realize she was leaking out more information of herself then was really required. "My youth did not offer time for play. I was the only daughter of a litter of five, after all. I had to fight hard to keep from being my brother's target practice. Not to mention the whole 'color issue'..." She mumbles off, her gaze transfixed on the colorful sky as she spoke. She'd never had reason for speaking up of herself before, not even to the members of her pack she had lived with for a year now. Perhaps she would find a friendship in this older man she really had not been expecting.

With a deep breath, he gave a slight nod in response to her words. They were true. When he pulled that cougar off the side of the mountain, he hadn't expected to survive. He'd spent his last seconds of life recalling important moments in his life, notably the faces of his parents. Of course, anything specific he'd thought then he couldn't remember now. Not to say he'd forgotten his life, but if he'd come to any important revelations in those last moments, they were lost now. It was depressing. <b style="color:#51b85f">"I hadn't expected to live...That certainly threw a wrench in my plans." He laughed tensely, instantly regretting the joke.

A look of concern passed over his eyes, and he frowned, <b style="color:#51b85f">"I'm...Sorry. I suppose I could say the same, though I seemed to find fun in any task given to me. I was the only child, the apple of my parents eye." Alex didn't say these words with pleasure, however. The love bestowed upon him impeded his growth, if anything. Who knew what his life could have been like had there been a sibling to join him. <b style="color:#51b85f">"Color issue?" He asked, curiously. He had noticed her exceedingly dark peltage, but hadn't thought it odd. <b style="color:#51b85f">"speech."

She laughs, ever so slightly too, surprisingly. Its a poor excuse for a joke, but she would find the darker nature to it that perhaps another might not have caught. Her ears twitched then, listening on how he was the only child in his litter, or only child at all. Food must have come plentiful, even living near the humans and their selfish ways. They were wasteful, which meant lots of leftovers to go around, or so she had been told once by a wolf who, much like he, had lived amongst them, on the outskirts of a ...."city", he had said. She could have imagined that he was able to get all that he wanted as a child, as a little prince where she had truly been of this breeding. However, with no time in her demanding lifestyle, and he, without siblings, they lacked the ability of 'play'. They had been stripped of their youth in ways where now age would prevent its return, it seemed.
And then he mentioned color and she nodded, ever so delicately, her head then falling with her gaze to shine with it's silvered glow once more upon him. Certainly, she was no where near the darkest wolf in the land, not even the darkest she had personally met. There was Kade, Fallen, Volkan and others, surely darker in pelt. Still, she remembered when she had first arrived to the Hollow, surrounded by Aisling, Jaysyek and Vlarindara, all painted in an angelic pale glow. Her creamy lips twitch and her black silken ears fall, but she speaks, none the less to his questioning...
”You see- there was a far long tradition in our nation; the elders had practiced it over many leader's past. Wolves of every color were accepted, but the lighter, the better. White wolves were considered more 'pure' and the woman likely given up to royal men. And the dark wolves? It would be said that their dark color reflected their dark souls...” To keep the dark colors low, they would often 'steal' light colored women from other pack-lands in order to use them for reproduction then to resort in using the darker colored women. But Elettra would not bother with going into the details of this. ”My grandfather was the first Archer to be king. He challenged the current King's placement and won.” Killing the former, sexist pig of a leader to gain his own placement, of course. ”While my grandfather was enslaved by tradition, my father was not. Though it was frowned upon deeply by the elders, he took a deeply colored woman as his lover and upon their marriage, they shattered the former tradition. My mother fought both passionately and fiercely for her respect and admiration. And, in time as you would imagine, came I and my brothers.”
And from there, she would stop. The rest was history, the constant need for sparring and practice. Her branch out into the world and into a neighboring band. Falling in love, and the shatter by its betrayal and short-stop of the children she once could have had. There was still much of her life unknown and still much of her life unwritten and yet, Alexander would know more then any of them all.

Hearing her laugh caused the man to smile. Despite the morbidity of the jest, the sound was welcome. She seemed rather pent up, and he felt as if he needed to do something about it. So that single noise meant quite a lot. Alexander was very interested to hear about this color issue, though. Some sort of segregation amongst wolves based on the color of their fur, perhaps? It sounded terrible, but the world was full of terrible things. Things like cougars and abandonment and death. His ears twitched and he focused his attention upon her when she began her story.

His idea wasn't far off. Pure and tainted. A frown painted his face, deep creases darkening the gray fur above his eyes. Why did things happen that way? But there was something rather exciting and whimsical (in a strange way) about the life she'd been born into. Rigid, rule driven system, where one had to work for everything they got. There was so much honor in that. He dipped his head as she mentioned her mother, feeling rather proud of a wolf he'd never met for standing up for herself where others would have fallen into place. <b style="color:#51b85f">"That's extraordinary," He breathed, looking up again.<b style="color:#51b85f">"What an incredible life you've lived. I hope...I hope I haven't pried." He only now really realized that she was (well, had been) a stranger to him, yet she'd just told him her past. <b style="color:#51b85f">"speech."

...your posts are so majestic, and i'm like, "here have poo" ;-;

majestic? oh, how you flatter! ;]

When he speaks, it is on behalf of her life, his words keeping the ever so delicate smile upon her lips. There is a since of wonder, amazement and liking in the tone which he holds, bringing her more of a pride in herself then she had already harbored. Her past was not filled with butterflies and sunlight, nor rainbows, but in a since it was filled with honor, accomplishment and greatness, all the same. She had come out in this world fighting, and she would die fighting, much the same. His words seemed to lift this up in her, that there was little which would get in her way, and nothing which she would take down who opposed her.
It is not until he mentioned perhaps prying, that Elettra realized how much she had relieved. Surely, there was much more to tell- more of her story, then the story of her parents and the pack's history. Still, she would shake her head, though her jaw would lock in place as a moment of weariness overcame her. She had told much to a complete stranger, but in truth, with all they had shared in the little time they knew one another, she was unable to call him much of a stranger any further. He was Alexander Dieudonné: the former leader of Midnight Plateu, born close to the lands of the humans and birthed as a single child. He was removed from his home by the humans and dropped off here, the pack nearly falling into his paws more or less. No, certainly he was a stranger no longer...
Still, a lump forms in her throat, falling silent. By the time her gaze returns to the den's opening, the brightness of the northern lights has since faded. Darkness is upon them, and in this moment of silence, it is only their breaths which stir. She becomes ever so aware of her thick scent of the breeding season, and how close he is beside her. She breaths in, deeply, shifting so she may dart her head into the small hollow just at her side. Once more lifting her head, would reveal a small plant which she would settle before him. "The petals and leaves will help you sleep and improve your rest, if you need it. You must be tired..." Though the plant was in whole, surely if he ate it all it would do no harm, as the seeds were used for pain and aiding in sleep just the same, and the flower would fit a continuous cough.
Other then these words, she fell silent, her silvery grey gave falling on the pale coloration of the older man next to her before her head would fell, settled upon her paws. She was hesitant to close her eyes and let down her guard before the male she had only just met this day, but the conversation they had reminded her of what she knew of him, and he had never a means to show any ill signals before. In moments, her eyes would close, determined to for, once and for all, get the night's rest she had been forever needing.