The Wildwood there's hope for the hopeless

Borlla remembered full well what lay below Sacred Grove. Nothing. There was nothing there. That's where her family had gathered after the horrible fire. Thats where they were greeted with nothingness, burned remains of flora, and the once great tree that they'd called their own. It was actually one of the only things left standing, unfortunately. Beneath it lay her parents. Nothing. She couldn't, wouldn't go down there.

If anything, she didn't understand why it all happened? Why hadn't anyone thought of going back for them? Borlla would have, if she had been bigger. Better herself than them. She was just little, she couldn't do anything, no matter what she said about it. Her parents...Everyone needed them. Kinis, Triell, Indru, Juani, Ruiko, Torla...Everyone.

But it was too late now. She found solace in the North, pretending that it was her old home, crawling through the undergrowth, yipping happily, rolling about in the mud and splashing in puddles. Pretending that nothing had changed. She would go back to Hidden Tree and cuddle up beside Lani, her mother, to drift off to sleep. There was no big tree here though. Just lots of smaller ones, overtaken by wines and things. The vines were fun to play with. If she could get enough height in a jump, she could grab on and swing for a moment before it snapped and dropped her. And if she thought she heard something scary coming, it was easy to hide.

After hearing the loud snap of a stick, she retreated to a rather dense thicket, peering out cautiously into the forest, wondering what had caused the disturbance. There was no fear in her, only the dull tremor of excitement. As long as there was no immediate danger, she had no reason to be afraid.

(This post was last modified: Aug 04, 2010, 10:07 PM by Borlla.)

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Ruiko had kept himself scarce since the accident. He spent his time in solitude, trailing parts of Relic Lore he had never visited before. He avoided company – any scents that he came across were quickly avoided as he would switch the direction of his creamy paws. However, there was one scent that lingered in many places they shouldn’t; places far away from the safety of home.. and that was Borlla’s. He knew his younger sister to be an adventurous youth, but with her scent straying from the mountain to the creek, he knew she was also being careless.

As the large male was about to return home, a hare hanging between his jaws, he had once more scented the little rascal where she should not be. Hesitating for only a moment, a small frown marring his stoical mask, Ruiko moved to a small rock, his hefty paws digging a small hole in which to place the meal he had caught for the pups. Gingerly dropping the prize, he quickly pushed the dirt on top of the rabbit, hiding it from the view of any stray hunter.

No sooner than he had discarded himself of the extra weight, the regal wolf quickly prowled in the direction his nose pointed him to. Sure enough, Borlla’s little paws had carried her to the Wildwood, and while he loathed to enter once more in to the destroyed land of memories, he only quickened his pace. At least she was not near their previous home.. she had enough sense to stay away from there.

He found her swinging on vines; something that caused his bright eyes to glance twice. Before he could give his muzzle a small shake of mild annoyance, his paw landed heavily upon a twig, crunching the fallen material in half. His eyes lifted to catch his baby sister move to hiding.. at least she had some sense about her. “Borlla,” he called, his deep timbre tone clearly unimpressed. “It’s me. You don’t have to hide.” Ducking his muzzle to miss a lower branch, the large brother emerged from the foliage, his eyes gazing levelly at the brazen whelp. “What are you doing out here?”

Peering from her hiding spot, she spotted the pair of golden eyes that were all too familiar. Ruiko. Oh no. He'd be mad. Wiggling, she managed to stick her head out, ears folded back, and looking slightly ashamed. Was she really? No. It was unfortunate that she'd been caught, however. She almost wished it had been some predator. At least then she could have felt good for keeping away from it.

Oh, but I do, She couldn't help but think as she pulled the rest of her body free from the thicket. What was she going to say? Pawing feebily at the ground, she plopped her rump down. All to stall. Excuses weren't usually so hard to come up with. She'd feel silly if she said she'd come out here to pretend it was "the past". So, she went for the failsafe, which...had a fifty percent chance of failing. "Just 'sploring." She tried to smile, but it didn't come out very well. "I wasn't doing anything bad!" As if saying that would make anything better.

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The immense figure of the brown tawny male shifted impatiently as his tiny sister began to sliver from her hiding spot. He could sense her hesitation from her, and his eyes remained drawn levelly upon her. She knew she was in the wrong for being so far from the pack land, and as the little wolf shuffled her paws, blinking her baby blue eyes at him, Ruiko held back a sigh. His little siblings tugged at his heartstrings much more now that his parents were not around, but he did not allow his assertive facade to fade because of this.

Her small smile only drew a blink from him, and at the finality of her answer, the large male erupted a snort of disbelief. “You know you shouldn’t be so far from Swift River. Don’t make me box your ears for lying,” he replied with deep sharpness, though his shoulders relaxed slightly. There was a small pause before the regal wolf gave a slight shake of his muzzle. “It’s dangerous to be so far from home, Borlla.” Wondering if this information would sink in, the male padded forward now, his muscles flexing beneath his tawny fur. “Come on, small teeth. Let’s get you home.”

(This post was last modified: Aug 06, 2010, 12:59 AM by Ruiko.)

A scowl appeared as her big brother began to speak and it only intensified with each passing moment. Ruiko wasn't fun like Indru...At least, Indru hadn't caught her so far away from home. There was a chance the reaction would be about the same, but she was still clinging to the faint hope that Indru would show her more leniency then Ruiko had. Not to say she didn't like her other older brother...No, that wouldn't be nice. It was more like at this very moment things weren't going her way. The golden eyed boy was losing points, but it was very likely that he didn't care.

All this talk of danger and she'd never seen anything scary wandering through Relic Lore. When she did, then she'd believe that it wasn't safe to wander far. However, she followed him anyway, very reluctant, but her paws move carefully over the leafy debris of the messy northern forest. "I've never seen anything scary out here." She spoke up, trying to keep up with the large brute. "Everyone keeps telling me that it's dangerous, but I've never seen anything dangerous." There was the faintest tone of insolence to her voice, but it was mostly taken up with confusing and pleading. "It's so boring in around the den."

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His own eyes darkened slightly as a scowl clouded her features, though he said nothing just yet of this. She was a brazen girl – one that could be quite disrespectful at times. Eventually, the regal wolf could only hope she would grow out of it, but only time would tell.. and, he mused, the time she spent with Junai and Ioni would probably greatly affect her morals and ideals in life once she entered the adult ranks. It would be a shame for such a young girl to become so bitter and power-ridden like her two older sisters so soon, but it would seem the Tainn family was unraveling very slowly since the death of their parents.

Borlla followed him obediently – but her tongue and attitude got the better of her. ‘I’ve never seen anything scary out there,’ she chimed, causing Ruiko to send a darkened glance her way, a low growl seeping past his lips dangerously at her attitude. “That’s just as well. A small sass-box like yourself wouldn’t stand a chance if you came across anything dangerous. It would gobble you up without a second thought,” he warned lowly, knowing that if Indru or Niija heard him telling her such tales they would likely smack him upside the head. He cared little though, Borlla was teetering on dangerous acts, and sooner than later, a creature would find the three-month old pup and see her a fit dinner. The family just couldn’t lose anyone else. He wouldn’t let it happen.

The large wolf began to lead them back the direction he had come, his eyes scanning for the rock he had buried the rabbit in. It was, after all, meant to feed three hungry little mouths, and it also allowed him to ignore the childish whining of his little sister as she complained about how bored she was.

The grown caused Borlla to simply shut her mouth, and everything he'd said afterwards didn't do much to help the crawling feeling inside her gut. It hadn't been long ago since she'd met the wolf Marsh, and she though he was going to eat her. It was almost worse imagining some mysterious, shadowy creature gobbling her up. So, it was at that point that she chose to silence herself, for fear of hearing something else that was scary. In a way, she wondered now if she should have been thankful that Ruiko had found her. What if that snap hadn't been him? What if it had been a monster! An apology rose up in her throat, but never quite made it out.

It was silent for many more moments before she chimed up, "Are you looking for something?" She scrambled up to walk along side him, curiously staring up at him, while trying not to trip. Since she was still rather short, she probably wouldn't be in the position for long, but she felt both safer and not so little when walking next to her bigger brother.

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Borlla finally let the new law he had just laid down to her settle without further comment, and his eyes trailed down to her momentarily to see if she was simply biting her tongue from any other sardonic comments, or if she was truly considering the warning he had bestowed upon her. Just to reiterate his meaning, Ruiko gave a gentle chuff. “I mean it, Borlla. Stay in the pack lands from now on. I swear, if I find out that you’ve been outside of them again you’ll wish something had eaten you by the time I’m done with you,” he warned lowly, his eyes shifting from her now and back to the path they were on. Only with these final words (he assumed she would certainly take his meaning to heart) did he let the subject completely drop.

She then padded up beside him, her natural puppy attention span clearly as short as a blade of grass, and the tawny male hid a smile at her sudden interest. Grunting in reply, his eyes continued to sweep the area they were back tracking now, his nose to the ground every so often to catch the scent. “I caught you and the kids dinner. Rabbit. I put it in a small cache.” There was a small pause, and drawing back, Ruiko withheld a sigh. Here came a situation where he knew he should teach her. “Think you can use that nose of yours to help me find it?” Tracking was a key skill for a wolf, and Borlla would need to learn eventually.

Dinner? Her tail wagged, "I can help you find it!" With a smile, she dropped to the ground, sniffling the earth, her tail continuing to wag. This was her chance to redeem herself. She'd gotten into trouble, and if she helped Ruiko find the rabbit, then maybe he wouldn't be so mad anymore. It couldn't be that hard. When Indru took her to the Orchard, they'd gone hunting on the way back to the dens. Of course, now she was hunting something dead. Rabbit was rabbit though, right? She wondered if the smell would be any different.

After another moment of sniffling, she sat back up, nose covered in dirt. Her ears flicked back, an overall downtrodden expression covering her face. Diligence, that was what she needed. In an attempt to look determined, she took a few hops forward and sniffed again, pausing only to tilt her head and ask her brother a question, "Does dead rabbit smell any different from live rabbit?" It was possible that the ground was keeping her from finding it too. Just another thing she'd have to learn.

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The youngster was eager to help (if only in an attempt to distract him from the trouble she was in) and the larger tawny wolf slowed his pace down, allowing the whelp to test her nose for the scent. Knowing it was still further up just because of the land marks about them, Ruiko kept this knowledge to himself, curious to see if Borlla would at least lead them closer to the direction they needed to travel.

She did good thus far – though it became quite apparent to him right then and there that the pack would soon need to further train the young ones, for in only a few months they would be expected to know more about hunting and tracking. It seemed only yesterday that the recent litter had been born, and yet here was the last daughter of Rihael and Lani, already three months old and knowing a little more sass than she perhaps should have. Growing to adulthood would perhaps be more confusing for her now more than ever, as she had many stand-in parents, but Ruiko was sure he was going to be a more strict gerant than the rest.

She was determined, though it did not take long for her frustration to seep in and stir the whelp to move back to him, her face glancing up to him, partially covered in dirt. “After awhile it does,” he responded without much thought. “But this is a fresh kill, so it will not smell so different than most, though that won’t always be the case Borlla.” There was a small pause, and Ruiko decided not to elaborate on that response. After all, if it had been a mangle kill, she would have smelled its blood too. With patience he had never had before the fire, the older wolf gave a nod to the trail he had come down earlier. “Perhaps our best bet would be to track my old steps as we go. What do you think?”