Hidden Grotto Wherefore art thou Romeo?

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/becuffin/hold.jpg) bottom no-repeat; background-color: #301e4e;"> The tawny wolf stalked forward, slowly creeping up on the oblivious hare. It was only a short sprint now, but she was thin and worn. Her timing would have to be perfect. The tell-tale twitch of an ear told her the meal was on to her and so she stood, lazily, disinterested as the small creature fled into the undergrowth, the scent of its fear only adding further fuel to the fire that burned in her gut. She was sick of starving. Following the scent trail the hare had left behind she kept her nose open and her eyes forward, tuning out all other scents but the one she was after. Food. The drive to find enough to get by was all consuming and she had grown complacent. Perhaps if she had been taking a larger portion for herself instead of giving everything to her son, she may have had enough of her wits about her to identify the heady scent that criss-crossed the ground. Perhaps she would have sensed the danger. Finally, opportunity reared its head. Rather than taking time to assess the situation, the starved beast launched, teeth clacking on air twice before finally finding purchase on the soft hide of the leproid. The satisfying crunch of bone as her powerful jaws broke its back when a little towards healing her broken soul. But this meal wasn't for her. Returning to where she had left her son, her nose poked into the hollow. Her heart leapt into her throat as the cold scent spoke what her heart dear not hear. He was gone. Meal still clasped tightly in her jaws, the scent of panic rolling off her pelt, the mother searched, anxious whines escaping her chest as each hollow and nook turned up as empty as the last. She had to find him.

code by bryony

(This post was last modified: Sep 11, 2012, 01:00 PM by Naira.)

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<i>He thought the world was going to be beautiful, before he could open his eyes. The scents around him had been wonderful, the sounds of his parents and the voices outside of the darkness were kind and comforting, but he never got to see the owners of those voices.
The first thing he had seen was a golden face. Funny, because he'd never pictured his parents to be golden. He didn't know why, but the face he had opened his big blue eyes to peer at, wasn't smiling like he had expected. His little nose twitched, something had smelt wrong but he didn't know what. Everything was a blur, there was darkness all around him except for the beacon of gold at the mouth of his warm little home. He'ad crawled, dragged himself on his belly to the gold face and planted a wet lick on a wet nose... then everything went wrong. He felt himself flying through the air, clamped tightly within jaws which didn't feel like either of his parents. The air around him turned cold, colder then he had ever felt before and he had shivered as the bitter air bit at his fur, just as painfully as the jaws around him clasped ever tighter. He knew he was moving, but he didn't know where and everything felt so wrong. He couldn't smell his parents, his siblings anywhere... no, wait... Mother was coming!

He was thrown to the ground with a thud, landing heavily, with a loud crack, on the side of his head as he rolled across a hard surface. He was inside something, walls around him but it wasn't soft or warm. It smelt of the earth and damp, but that made him feel no more comforted then before. Whoever had been carrying him had dropped him, sharply. His tiny eyes opened once more, but his vision seemed blurrier than before. The knock to his head must had hurt more than he had first realized. What he did see was darkness, all around him cold and darkness. In the distance he could hear noises, his mother was angry... he hadn't ever heard her be angry at anyone else but his father, but she was super mad at someone. With a push, he tried to lift himself, but he little body was cold and tired. He just wanted to sleep. <b>"Da..."</b> he whined, waiting for the warm breath of his father to come and scoop him up as he'd done last time Adonis had somehow managed to wriggle out of the den. Da didn't come... but Ma did. She had smelt funny, like copper and salt. She was wet, sticky almost and her breathing had been labored. He couldn't question her, just take comfort in her teeth as they lifted him by the nape.

The voices of his father, the warmth and scent of his siblings were nothing but a thought now. He didn't think he would recognize any of them anymore, it had been so long since he had seen them all. Well, not literally seen, but been in their company. He supposed he would miss them, if he had known more of them or could visualize something to miss. He just couldn't. All he knew was the ankles of his mother, following her like a shadow on a long and tiring journey. Gosh he was tired, all he wanted to do these days was sleep but he knew he could not. He didn't know why, but they were always moving. His mother didn't really talk much anymore. She had in the beginning, she sung him songs and spoke words of comfort, but he realized now she was singing to comfort herself as well, but now she had lost faith, lost herself along this journey and the singing had dried up.
He missed her singing... but he didn't want to ask her for anything. She had been through a lot and she looked more tired them him. He didn't talk much either, though he knew how. He listened, he learned and kept the knowledge to himself. Heck, he hadn't even told his mother about his little... issue, because he didn't want to cause her more stress.
She looked different now too. She used to be so fluffy and warm, now when he curled within her body she was hard and bony. He couldn't understand why she had changed, he just knew that she had and he didn't like it one bit.

She'd left him earlier this morning, off on the hunt for food again. Was that really how boring life was? Just looking for a meal that barely filled you up, and walking? Adonis wasn't too impressed with that, and had decided to venture off whilst she was away to find something more out of life. He did it every so often, not wanting to disobey but not wanting to sit and let his mind rot. He needed something to do, to occupy himself and he had really taken a liking to exploring and finding out how things worked. Quite often he came across a dead animal and would pull the thing to pieces, discovering what each bit did, how it moved, what did what and why it did that. He'd been learning so much, and found that he loved to learn new things, so adventuring whilst she was away seemed the best bet.

Today he had come across the remains of what could have once been a squirrel. He sat with his back to the world, his tiny teeth gnawing on what was one a bushy tail to get a feel and taste for it. There was no meat, but learning with your teeth was fun. So engrossed was the little black tyke, that he didn't see the lanky black wolf appear behind him. No, he didn't see him... but he sure felt him. The hackles on his spine tingled and something in the air told him to look around. When he did, his pale blue eye and his pale grey eye met those of ghostly steel. Something about the wolf both scared and charmed him, so much so that he did not run... just sat there looking at the lanky male... confused.</i>

Rhysis had been lapping all the falls, his thirst had been severe of late, were water alcohol he would be a drunk, an angry drunk at that. The cold liquid seemed to extinguish a fire within him, but never for long. Bloated from the drink, he had left the bank of the falls and ventured into the shadows of the trees, away from the sun that once upon a time, he would have basked in; now it burnt his eyes.
<i>Do you smell that?</i>
His ghost of a father was still with him, irritating yet comforting the dark King at the same time. Tentatively he stopped, lifted his nose to the air and took a drag. Whatever it was... smelt divine. Quick as a flash he was on the heels of the scent, something about it told him to get there quickly and being a wolf that lived only on instinct, he obeyed his basic urges.

As be broke free from the thickets, his eyes landed on a small pup. Black in colour, as dark as the night. Oblivious to his presence it seemed and he smelt, just divine. Stepping forward, Rhysis lowered his head and smirked. He'd never tried pup before... but the grumble in his stomach told him that he wouldn't be opposed to a bit of cannibalism... but not before he got the chance to play with his food.

<b>"My... what's a little squirt like you doing out alone, huh? Don't you know that a Big Bad Wolf lives around here?"</b> he drawled, much to the amusement of his mirage of a father who snorted a chuckle at his side.

The little pup looked at him, his unnatural eyes meeting Rhysis' own grey gaze. Something hit him, like a smack around the face. He didn't know what he was, but for a second he felt unsure, he wasn't sure what with, but something wasn't right.

<i>Oh man up, go eat the little shit so we can get out of here before his pack finds him.</i> Demanded the ghost wolf as it paced over to the tyke and snapped invisible jaws around the pups neck, pretending to eat it. A sight that Rhysis had been all too familiar with.
He had to hurry, that was true. The pup belonged to a pack around here, and he didn't have time to waste. With purpose, he stepped paw after paw, towards the black puppy.</blockquote>

(This post was last modified: Sep 11, 2012, 02:41 PM by Rhysis.)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/becuffin/trigger.jpg) bottom no-repeat; background-color: #301e4e;"> The mother was crazed alright. As she tore through the underbrush, memories flashed through her mind in a haze. A deep crimson haze. There was danger here. Something... Someone... That scent... It soothed and put her on edge all at the same time, but she just couldn’t place it. It was then the stranger came into sight. So close, oh so close to her boy, and she didn’t like the way he was looking at him at all. An almost hungry gleam in his eye... but she was closing the distance quickly. It was true that she was little more than a stick of a wolf now, but her thickening coat gave her the illusion of weight she didn’t carry and her golden eyes blazed with rage. If looks could kill the black stranger would be dead. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she stood protectively over her son, her tail raised like a banner over her back as her teeth barred and she stood nose to nose with the black wolf who smelled so right and growled deep. He smelled like home... But she didn’t have time to ponder that right now, and home was the furthest thing from her mind. Without breaking eye contact or unclenching her teeth, she shifted her back leg to allow her son an escape. When he hesitated she growled his name. ”Adonis. Go.” She would deal with the stranger herself.

code by bryony

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<i>The stranger... his voice. It was so strange, but it was so soothing and familiar. He had heard that voice before, hadn't he? It was fuzzy, lost... but somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this wolf and even though the wolf looked at him as if he were a morning snack, he felt bold. Brave. Empowered by his presence, and he took a bold step forward... until his mother appeared as if from the very air and towered above him. She looked fierce, scary in fact... not like the mother he knew, but the mother he knew she could be. He glanced up at her, curiously tilted his head but he only saw her breast cage from his position. <b>"But ma..."</b> he whined as he glanced back to the stranger, half of his face clear and half of his face a blur... he knew him, he just knew he did. And he wasn't going to just hide away when he had his mind set on something. He wanted to know who he was.</i>

As he took another step closer, the little mite had stood and taken a step closer, a look of curiosity, maybe something more as he bore into his eyes. He was brave, he'd give him that, but bravery was the food of fools. Any wolf could be brave... Bravery would get this kid killed.
With a snort, he took another step forward, so focused on the mismatched eyes of the youth was he that he didn't noticed the stench of a female until she stood before him, standing over her son as fierce as any mother could be.
Rhysis took a step back to assess the situation. The mother was in poor condition, thinner then he was at least. Her scent was vile, as dirty as the mattes within her fur, but he was certain that she had no pack smell on her. They were alone... and they looked just delicious.

<i>Oh what luck boy! Two for the price of one!"</i> said the ghost to his tattered ear, dancing around the mother and son, skipping but fading in and out as he always did when the ghost did something his real father never would have. Gah, he was such a tease.

<b>"No... let the boy stay. He can be desert."</b> snapped Rhysis. White pearls of saliva falling from his teeth to the grass underfoot as he took a bold step forward.[/I]</blockquote>

(This post was last modified: Sep 11, 2012, 03:12 PM by Rhysis.)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/becuffin/trigger.jpg) bottom no-repeat; background-color: #301e4e;"> Every fibre of her being was screaming at her to lash out. To attack. To kill. But something deeper was holding her back. For the first time in months, a small voice was telling her to just walk away. No. Run. Scream and snap and yell. Fight tooth an nail until her son got far far away. She was about to tear herself apart from the inside out. There was something about this stranger that tugged at her memory and threatened to bring her well built walls crumbling down, and she tried so hard to ignore it. She tried to push the memories down… But her son was stepping forward again and the tension in the air was palatable. It was just a case of waiting to see who snapped first… The resemblance was uncanny, where the stranger had blue flecks in his cold grey eyes, her son had gold. Could it be? There was something so familiar about this wolf, and yet so bizarre. Perhaps somewhere, in another time, maybe even another life, she had known him? His cool drawl made her hair stand on end. There was something seriously wrong with the beast before her and subconsciously, her leg shifted to block the path of her son. There had to be a way out of this. There had to be an escape.

code by bryony

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<i>Beneath the warmth of his mothers chest, he felt the tension within her body, the confusion, the anger all mixed into one. It felt like his mother knew this wolf as well... but why didn't she say anything to him? Well, if she wasn't going to say anything, he would. He lowered his head, certain his mother was more focused on the black wolf before them then he who coward beneath her. Taking a breath, a deep one at that, be ran forwards, out from the shelter of his mother and headed towards the stranger, who stood there dumbfounded as the tiny pup strode right up to him.</i>

The female looked.... strange. Something about her didn't make him angry, which made him angry because of the confusion. He hated to be confused. It was an unsettling feeling, one he had no control over and Rhysis was never one to lose control. Yet something about her was unsettling...

<i>Oh will you hurry up. I'm fading away here!</i> cried his father, dancing around still like a fool, skipping back and forwards between both Rhysis and the pair before him. He'd been about to say something to the ghost when the black bundle between her legs ran forwards, bold as brass, right up to his face and stopped just a few feet away. His blue eyes were different closer up, such a strange combination... blue as white as ice, yet with flecks of gold that danced in the light. Those eyes... he knew those eyes.

<b>"Volkan..."</b> he said, almost surprising himself as the name tumbled from his memory and into the open. Volkan had eyes that colour... he hated those eyes.

<i><b>"Who are you?"</b> said the pup, trying his best to muster a bold and brave voice. His gaze was stern, meeting the ghostly grey eyes of the stranger before him. Out here, in the open, he felt exposed. Even with his mother just behind him, he knew he had made a stupid move, but more often then not, the need for knowledge would beat out his common sense... he was not quite as clever as his father had been in that respect. Whilst his father enjoyed learning, he knew this would have been a foolish move, but the burning need to learn was too much for the young boy to hold inside... he had to know what this now snarling stranger meant to both he and his mother.</i>
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(This post was last modified: Sep 12, 2012, 10:26 AM by Rhysis.)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/becuffin/trigger.jpg) bottom no-repeat; background-color: #301e4e;"> She held her breath as her son boldly moved forwards, escaping the cover of her thin frame. Her heart stopped for a moment as the stranger looked at her son with such loathing. ”Volkan...” She knew that name... It pulled at her... but from where? The walls were starting to crack and it was getting to be too much. She had to move now. Her muscles bunched instinctively, but the confident voice of her son gave her pause. Watching him, standing there, fearless in the face of danger would have caused her chest to swell with pride, were she not about to have an aneurism. He was so like his... like his... Memories began to trickle through the cracks. Had she hunted with this wolf once before? Maybe... Something shadowy moved about in her mind... This wolf... With another... Lashing out, the rip of flesh between her fangs and the coppery taste of blood... If she had fought with him before she would think he would remember. It couldn’t be him. It couldn’t... A name whispered in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t quite catch it. Regardless, she was less than a lunge away, all it would take was the tiniest twitch from the dark man and she would be on him. Her son might not escape unscathed but he would live, even if she didn’t. Some lessons had to be learned the hard way.

code by bryony

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<i>Oh for fuck's sake! This isn't family reunion. Just slaughter them!</i> screamed his fathers voice, the ghost now appearing right before him, towering over the young pup. He felt something then, a stab of aggression towards the shadow as it stood too close to the pup, but he had no feeling for the whelp and put it down to a hunger pain rather than anything else.

<b>"Will you shut up!"</b> snapped the southern drawl, his eyes lifted from the child and its question and met the empty sockets of his father. He'd never really looked at his father until now, and he found himself taking a step back at the sight of tiny maggots wriggling around in the eye sockets. From a distance they had just looked like white eyes, but this close, a foot away from his own face, he saw him as he was. He didn't look so powerful with maggots on his face. Funny, how this boy gave him a moment of clarity...

Yet as quickly as it had come, it vanished once more. His fathers eyes solidified back to normal and looked down upon the boy, his question still lingered in the air. With an inward mental shake, Rhysis regained his poise, coiled like a viper, ready to strike. <b>"I'm the Big Bad Wolf."</b> he said as his nose wrinkled once more, his head lowered to meet the look of the pup once more as he took a step forward, closing the gap between them. He felt the presence of the female. He could imagine the mental screams in her mind as he stepped ever closer to her baby, but he wasn't afraid of her.

<i>The stranger was quiet, his eyes lifted from Adonis' own to hover in the air for a moment. Confused after being told to shut up, he quirked a brow and simply stood watching, looking forwards to the male as his face flashed with different emotions. Man, he was all kinds of crazy. Yet he kept his footing, his head high and bold as he waited for an answer as he certainly wasn't leaving without one.
He refused to look over his shoulder at his mother, knowing the look she'd have upon her face thanks to his close proximity with a madman, but he had to know the truth. Then he got an answer... but not the one he wanted.
The Big Bad Wolf? It wasn't a good enough answer, that was for sure, but as the large male moved closer, he found himself stepping backwards until his rear bumped into his mothers leg. Sure, he was brave... but he was still only a little squirt who needed his mother's protection. Damnit. He needed to grow faster.</i>
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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/becuffin/trigger.jpg) bottom no-repeat; background-color: #301e4e;"> The wolf before her was mad. But was she really any better herself? He inched closer and finally Adonis began to back up. As the big bad wolf’s nose wrinkled, her own mirrored it and she could no longer contain the growl that began to work its way from her gut. Finally her boy was as close as he needed to be and soon she felt her son bump against her leg. That tiny bump was her trigger and she was off, launching herself at the stranger, they collided as her teeth sought his face or the side of his neck. Anything to slow him down. His scent washed over her. The feel of his muscles against her own frame as she tried to push him back. The way his dark fur mingled with her own tawny coat... his eyes, so familiar and now so alien... She was momentarily stunned and fell back as she braced for the retaliation she knew would come. The name left her lips before she had thought to stop it. ”Rhysis!” Confused golden eyes sought the grey eyes of the wolf who had been her mate. The last time she had seen him he has been in their den. With their cubs, asleep... All except the little Adonis... She could only hope he wouldn’t see her die.

code by bryony

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Honestly. He wasn't even hungry. He just wanted to tear something to pieces. Rip it limb from listen, bathe in the screams and lap greedily at the blood he would spill upon the floor. Because he could. Because unlike before he had no reason not to unleash the beast he had supressed for so long; the beast given to him by his father, the monster inside him that clawed at him since his first breath, screaming, scratching at him to escape and breathe. The wolves he had met in his life thought he was bad enough... but the change in him now was nothing like before, he was a kitten back then. Now he was a tiger. The instinct within him to just maul everything was bubbling, alongside the goading of his father who still danced around, flicking in and out of sight as he went was just maddening.

He shook his head, trying to clear the mess of thoughts that clouded him, but as he shut his eyes to make the gesture, the sound of movement touched his ears and he was too slow in coming back to reality as the female ploughed into him. Her thin weight surprisingly heavy on a wolf off guard as he stumbled backwards, not quite losing his footing but enough to make him slip slightly, yet her teeth had found his shoulder and he had to deal with that, quickly. With teeth bared he braced himself, picking up his paws and readied himself to tear the girl limb from limb before he would track down the freaky eyed pup for supper. Or he had been, until she uttered a word. A word that chilled him to the very bone. <i>Rhysis</i>

He knew that name. Why did he know that name? Was that her name? No... that was a strange name for a female. Maybe the pup? Maybe she was just trying to distract him, even more than she had already done. No, he wasn't going to fall for her petty tricks. He remained still for a moment, letting the name settle... acting as if it meant something to him, but as quickly as his calm came, it was disturbed and he lowered his head to try and clamp one of her thick front legs into his jaws... the sound of her bones crunching would be heaven- he just needed to get a good grip.

<i>It all happened so fast. Gosh, what had he done. His mother was fighting with this wolf and it was all his fault. What if he got her killed? He had to do something. He couldn't let his mother get hurt anymore, not when she had been so hurt already.
With all his courage he charged around to the back of the black wolf, using the shadows to keep himself hidden until he found a good position, waited for the perfect moment then launched himself towards the back hock of the dark male, his jaw opened as wide as it could as he hoped to distract the wolf for just long enough for his mother to escape. He would never forgive himself should she come to an end here and with no one around, knowing no one in these lands- he only had himself to save her.</i>
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