Poison Path i see you

<blockquote>See, this was why she didn't need to go anywhere else to get her daily thrills. Their Lost Lake and its surrounding forest held all the mysteries in the world. It was an ongoing game to try to discover them all, but, secretly, Bella hoped that she never would. She didn't want her home to lose its magic.

Fortunately, there was more than enough of it to go around, and today a whole new world had been born.

She had sensed it, sensed something, but the signs were different to those she knew. At first she had been expecting a heavy rainfall, but then had realised that wasn't... quite right. The clouds were there, the colours in the sky, the heaviness, but it was colder than usual. She had gone to sleep that night in the den she always slept in, the one that she and her mother had shared ever since she was born. Sometimes she slept there alone, when the rest of the pack were in the larger den, but she didn't mind. It was home, and it was always warm, and it was her sanctuary.

The next morning, when she emerged with sleepy eyes, it presented her with a wonderful gift.

White <i>everywhere</i>. She stood outside, dumbfounded, forepaws in the thin snow as she stared, unable to believe it. Oh, she had presumed to know the sky, the wind, the clouds - she had believed herself capable of understanding them, her dearest friends. Now, they winked at her and showed her a new face, a beautiful, crisp white face, and she simply fell harder in love.

The moment she realised that the face could be damaged by treading on it, she endeavoured to spoil it as little as possible; seeking a wide open patch of pure whiteness, she picked her way to the centre using small rocks and uncovered, grassy patches as her path. Triumphant, she sat in the middle of a thin blanket of smooth white, revelling in the glory of it. Uninterrupted, she would be content for a long time.</blockquote>

His nose twitched. Tentatively he tested the air for her scent, but she was gone for now. He could breathe once more. He loved her of course, to the point of obsession, but sometimes living as her shadow was just exhausting. Even though she had made herself a presence in this new pack, which had actually been his old pack, he still wasn’t able to shake her watchful presence so it was a nice relief when she was MIA for a bit. He knew she would come for him. She always did, which is why they left in the first place. He’d never forget that night. That wolf who had snatched him as he blindly ambled towards him. The feeling of flying, before falling back to earth with a thud. He hadn’t seen it; his eyes were barely opened, but he could still remember the motions and the noises; his mother was fierce and he knew she was hurt, he could smell it upon her when she came for him, but they never spoke of it. It was left in the past, the best place it could be left.

He edged forward from the hole he had been sleeping in. Apparently they were safe here on these lands, but he didn’t trust anyone. Apparently these wolves were his family, but after “meeting” his brother, he wasn’t interested in meeting the rest. His brother was a bonehead. He’d only seen his sister from afar, but he wasn’t too keen on her either. He could see it in his mother’s eyes, the light that appeared when she caught sight of her daughter. They looked so alike. They had the same eyes, the same fur and the same build. His sister was a mini version of his mother. Even that jerk Datura had similar eyes and fur; not as dark as his mother, but everything else was there with his stocky build and light colouring. Then there was himself. Black. Utterly dark, with these almost ice blue eyes, flecked with gold. He was such a freak. Fine, he judged them and he didn’t even really know them but he felt like he didn’t like them and therefore, didn’t want to know them. Of course, he was jealous and he would admit that. They got to live the pack life here, safe and not broken. He didn’t. He got hurt, his head had hit that tree had enough to knock his very vision from his head. He supposed he should be thankful that one eye remained with sight and that his eyes were so oddly coloured that no one had yet to notice, or if they had, comment on what they saw. Self-pity was his best friend, self-pity and mischief.

As his eyes adjusted to the land before him, he took a step back. The entire earth was white. ”Oh no…” he whined, certain that his one good eye had lost its magic of seeing in colour. Everything was stark. White as a bone. Where had all the colour gone? He felt the panic prickle up his skin and suddenly he didn’t want his mother to not be here, he wanted her standing right next to him to reassure him. He had to find her. To make sure she was safe. He would never be able to repay her for saving him and since that day had taken it upon himself to ensure she would always be safe and always be happy. ”Mum?!” he shouted, his unbroken voice rang out all around him, but nothing came back. He strained his ears, as hard as his head would allow, trying to catch her movements whilst his nose worked overtime. She wasn’t here. He needed to find her.

He lifted his paw. Shaky, unsteady, but determined, he placed the leather pad upon the white substance that bordered his den. It burnt him. ”Ah! he seethed between his teeth, mistaking the cold for fire. His paw hovered in the air, his mind trying to work out a way around it, but there was none. ”Help! he called, to no reply. Where was she? He had to find her. He took a deep breath, lowered his head and broke out into a run. Slipping like a bullet from a gun as he ran from his shelter towards the lake. All of the wolves gathered there and border patrol was tight. There had to be someone there.

The cold snow burned his paws, but he ran so fast he didn’t have time to feel it or understand that in fact it was not hot, but cold and safe to walk upon. His long, lanky legs carried him quickly across the snow. His paws kicked at the drifts and flung the white substance here and there, but he didn’t look back. ”Mum?! he shouted again, trying to find her. A lump clung to his throat, hoping dearly to find her safe.

As the lake came into view, he spotted no adults. No one at al- There! His course diverted as he spotted something furry the other side of the lake. From this distance, his one good eye couldn’t determine who it was, and with the salt from the lake burning his nose, he couldn’t sniff them out either. Not that it would do him much good; he knew no one by name and didn’t care to learn them. Still, he needed help and he was as much of a Prince here as the others… well, that is the excuse he would use to get them to help find his mother and ensure her safety.

He didn’t waste his voice again; instead he ran the edge of the lake, his paws sloshing in and out of the ice cold water as it lapped at the shore. The white stuff didn’t touch the lake, he felt a little safer with the water at his paws. As he ran ever closer to the figure he saw, his pace begun to slow. That wasn’t a wolf that could help. That was his “sister”. She was hesitating about something, before she slipped between some rocks. Should he ask her? No one else was around… maybe she could direct him to a grown up; this was going to be dreadful, talking to the enemy and all that, but his mothers safety was in the balance and he would have to make the sacrifice.
Taking a deep breath, he slipped around the lake and hid behind a rock that stood at the entrance of her snow palace. His nose quivered at the smell of her, both irritating and yet familiar. Slowly but surely, he glanced around the rock, eyes following his nose until they landed on the pretty girl who sad with a look of sheer joy and wonder on her face. Ergh, she looked so much like his mother, so much so he felt like he couldn't hate her. He wasn't sure why, but being this close to her at last, seeing the warm smile on his face melted that hostility he felt. Not all the way, but enough to bring him out from hiding.
”Erm. Hi?” he said, standing there with a tilt to his head, a trait unbeknownst to him of his father, before he offered her a very awkward smile.

(This post was last modified: Jan 02, 2013, 07:58 PM by Adonis.)

<blockquote>She hung somewhere between alert and disconnected, fixated on her surroundings but in an almost trivial way; the light danced off the tiny flakes and filled her eyes with magic, and she listened to her beloved forest, and the nearby lake, as though everything had changed and she would need to learn it all all over again. What a thought! She couldn't wait.

The soft cries of somebody out of sight barely registered. She wasn't tuned in to wolfish voices, but the song of her world. She listened to it all, and to nothing at all. Had Adonis not ventured further, Belladonna would have slipped quite easily into a deeply meditative state, but approach he did, and when his pawsteps broke through her serenity, she glanced sharply in his direction, frowning at the unexpected and unwanted interruption, more startled than truly annoyed. The moment she recognised him, her curiosity regarding the quiet boy almost overtook her displeasure at having her 'moment' disrupted.

Still, she could not allow the beautiful blanket to be disrupted. Even as he offered his awkward greeting, her eyes were falling to his feet, paranoid that he was being careless. <b>"Don't ruin it,"</b> she said, a little too sharply - and then looked back at his face and smiled apologetically. He never spoke to her... perhaps there was more magic in the air than she had realised. <b>"It's just, you know, it's so pretty. Please don't step on it?"</b></blockquote>

His paw halted mid step as he registered her words. Don’t ruin it? Don’t ruin what? Confused, he tilted his head and glanced side to side. He couldn’t see anything he could cause harm. A tree here and there, the lake behind him, a rock or two and all the hot white stuff. There was nothing here that he could ruin, or that he would call pretty. Maybe she was just teasing him like that butthead golden pup had. He still couldn’t believe he was blood with that freak… and that he wasn’t allowed to tell him so. Maybe the hunky pup would have been nicer to him had he known that they were brothers, but his mother’s instructions were strict and he would not share their secret until he was told to. He must act the stranger that he was, to both the golden moron and this smaller version of his mother.

”Oh erm… sorry?” he replied, still unsure of what it was he actually did wrong, but he ensured not to move another muscle until she actually told him what it was he was doing wrong. ”Did I do something wrong?” he asked again as he looked down as his paws. Beneath him, the white stuff wasn’t as thick as it had been. His leather pads left imprints in the snow and as he glanced over his shoulder he realised he had left a trail. With his fathers brain, he quickly pieced together the bits of the puzzle and realised it was the white stuff on the ground she spoke of.

It was only when he had stopped and really looked, he saw how it sparkled. Pinks and blues glittered in the sunlight- it was so pretty, but he and his big feet had ruined it. Honestly, he could do nothing wrong. His ears lowered to his skull, an apology in them as his head lowered. ”I… I don’t know what it is. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin it.” he said, his words spoken like an adult; after all, he had no other children around to learn from.

(This post was last modified: Jan 02, 2013, 07:59 PM by Adonis.)

<blockquote>Her heart sank a little as she saw the confusion on his face, as he glanced about at the beauty and didn't see it. He apologised, but it wasn't quite the same when she knew he didn't really understand what he was apologising for. Not that it really mattered in the short term; he had grasped enough to do her the courtesy of staying still, which gave her some time to explain.

As it turned out, she didn't need to explain. <i>Did I do something wrong?</i> he asked, even as he was glancing down at his feet, and she stayed silent, watching him, watching his expression. <i>There.</i> She knew next to nothing about this boy, save for the fact that he had come here with Naira, and did not underestimate this opportunity to learn more. It wasn't that she wasn't curious about him, but she wanted so badly not to alienate him further that she had deemed it best to simply let him avoid her and not bother him. If he wanted to talk to her, all he had to do was say hello. Today, it had finally happened.

She remembered a promise given to his mother. <i>Try to show him how to have fun.</i> Maybe she would finally be able to start making good on it.

<b>"No, it's okay, I know you didn't mean to."</b> She surveyed the blanket, her circle of perfect white beauty, and then exhaled softly, turning back to watch him with a smile. <b>"It's probably not going to stay forever, so it's okay. It's just nice to enjoy it while it's perfect."</b>

Carefully she stood, and backtracked, stepping on patches of short grass or small rocks where they would prevent her from spoiling the snow. Once free, she circled the area towards him, deliberately leaving a large area pristine centered about the point she had been sitting. The snow crunched underfoot and rather than cringe at the knowledge she was marring perfection, she tried to realise that if she didn't get used to it soon, then she was pretty much going to be trapped in the den until it all went away by itself.

<b>"I have no idea what it is either,"</b> she confessed, sitting next to him so that she was facing the patch of snow she had tried so hard not to damage. Hopefully he wouldn't mind her being this close - was it a step too far? She couldn't try and help him join in her happiness if he was at tail's length, so she just stayed quiet and hoped that he wouldn't protest too much. It wasn't like she was going to bite him or anything.</blockquote>

She was so graceful. Such a simple task of approaching him without touching the white stuff was elegant and clean. Not like him; he'd had bumbled, tripped and no doubt landing right in the middle of what she so dearly wanted to protect. Another trait from her mother of course... but not the one she believed was her mother. I mean, come on. He might only have seen the white leader once, but surely his siblings were not so blind to see the truth? She wasn't their mother... his mother, was her mother. They were blood. She was his sister; someone to play with, to laugh with, to grow up with and care for forever more. Yet here he was, standing aside her a complete stranger.
As she stood aside him, he looked not at the white stuff but at her. His left eye was damaged, so badly that she was nought but a blur, instead he had to turn fully and really look at her. A mini version of his beloved mother. Gosh, he wanted to tell her so badly. To let her see the lies... but he swore he would not. Thus, he could not.

"Where do you think it came from?" he asked, looking away from her and back to the blanket of snow that covered the space before them. It certainly hadn't been there last night, and he had slept through it falling. Exhausted after a day of trying to race up the mountains to improve his skill at navigating them. He was getting there... despite his lack of vision and depth perception, he found he could feel the paths rather then see them. His paws would twist ever so slightly this way and that, and once he had learnt the pattern and the feeling in his pads, he seemed to just know which way to turn and when. Sure, there had been a few near misses, but with his mother involving herself in pack life, which he by the way, really wasn't interested in, he had days on end to practice the skill. He wasn't as graceful as the little girl next to him had been on her way over here, he probably never would be, but he was getting at least sturdy on the mountains and building his strength and stamina.

In silence, he waited for her theory. He wondered if she too liked to think and know things, like he did. He enjoyed learning how things worked, where they came from, why they did what they did. The snow was no different, he wanted to know everything he could about the white stuff that burnt his paws. Maybe she didn't have the answers, but if she was smart they could perhaps figure it out together? He didn't know much about her, other than who she was and that was only because he had overheard his mother talking in her sleep. She had the strangest dreams, but over the months he had pieced together the fragments to discover the truth. His father was missing but she loved him so dearly. His siblings were lost to her, she hoped they were safe... but coming here, smelling the smells, hearing the voices, he had finally been able to piece it all together. She didn't have the other information, and to be fair to her she probably didn't need it. She seemed happy enough and he wasn't going to be the one to ruin her life... just like he had ruined some of the snow.

(This post was last modified: Jan 02, 2013, 08:00 PM by Adonis.)

<blockquote>Far from self-conscious, Bella was not perturbed by Adonis' quite obvious staring. She figured since he was so quiet, maybe he didn't get to spend much time with the pack, so he wasn't used to being talked to or something? Or maybe he was just awkward around girls, in which case it was her job to help him see that she was just as cool as any boy.

Bella's eyes were only for the snow, though, so she didn't see anything in his eyes which might have encouraged a premature question. That might have made the situation awkward. Instead, she only glanced at him when he posed the innocent question, and almost immediately afterwards did she lift her gaze to the sky.

<b>"The clouds looked different last night, and the air, it... it tasted colder. Did you feel it?"</b> It was a question she had once liked to ask Datura, but she had quickly learnt not to. He didn't appreciate her trying to share her joys, and, in fact, he always acted like he thought she was lauding something over him. She didn't like upsetting her brother, because, sometimes, he scared her a little. The moment she had gotten old enough to spend more time, especially playtime, with the rest of the pack rather than him, she had leaped at the opportunity. Maybe it was wrong of her to judge Adonis for avoiding her when she avoided Datura. But that was different, wasn't it? It's not like they were blood.

Blood, but with different mothers. Or something. She usually tried not to think about it too much...</blockquote>

As she lifted her head to the sky, he followed. The sky above was a little brighter then usual. The air, if he took a deep breath, felt crisp and very clean; not in a sterile way but just refreshing. It made his lungs jump to attention as the cold tendrils of the air touched his warm insides. It felt good, just sitting there, breathing deep and listening to her theory. He hadn't sensed a change. He didn't share his mothers beautiful gift, despite how many times she had tried to drum it into him. He didn't see much differences between two yellow flowers of the same size. He couldn't sense the rain. He couldn't sense the white stuff falling. He didn't work on feelings. He worked on knowing and until he could reach a cloud to pull it apart, he could only try to be polite at her shared interest in the weather. He tolerated his mothers ramblings, he would tolerate hers too.

"No. I er- I went to sleep early. Tough day climbing the mountains." he said, telling the truth to an extent; he did climb the mountain the day before, but he never went to bed early. His mind never settled, never switched off. He had broken sleep, tossing and turning, laying there awake listening to his mother talking in her sleep sometimes.
He didn't want to think about his mother. He worried if he thought and compared them much more, he might blab her secret and he would never forgive himself if he hurt her. He had to change his trail of thought.. something unattached.

"We should give it a name. Everything should have a name." he said with a nod at his decision... but with no clue what name to give it. He glanced to her with a tilt of his head, wondering if she was more creative then he was. His mother was very creative... damnit. There she was again.

(This post was last modified: Jan 02, 2013, 08:00 PM by Adonis.)

<blockquote>She nodded along to his explanation, not really requiring or expecting an excuse. Had she guessed, she would have already known that the answer to her question was 'no'. That was most people's answer, after all. Naira was the only one to imply anything different, so maybe it had not been wrong to believe that Adonis might feel it too. Despite that small hope, she was not disappointed when his answer boiled down to yet another 'no'. There was no point in being disappointed in what always happened.

His mention of climbing mountains, though, was interesting to her, and she turned to look at him for a moment, intrigued. Maybe that was why she didn't see him around much, because he liked to explore? She preferred that answer to the one which implied he just outright avoided her. Bella herself spent relatively little time actually on rocky or 'mountainous' terrain, preferring the slopes of her forest and the expanse of her lake. It was true that she loved to sit out on the Riddle Heights which required some careful footwork, but that was not entirely the norm. Home was within the boundaries set out by the pack, and it was where she wanted to be. There was no wonders to be found which could possibly be greater than those which lived at home.

<i>We should give it a name,</i> he suggested, and her ears perked at the notion, eyes widening as she turned back to stare at the beautiful blanket all around them. <b>"Oooooh,"</b> she said, clearly taken with the notion. <b>"I think - no, no! Oh, I can't think of anything pretty enough. I'm no good with names! Can you think of anything? Go on, please."</b></blockquote>

She turned to him for a name. He felt a little pride in being the one to help her out. Sure, it wasn't a life or death situation, but it felt nice to be wanted. He just hoped he wouldn't screw it up. It was a tough job, coming up with a name that didn't suck and would cause her to laugh at him. He looked to the snow, long and hard, the concentration evident in his expression as he thought of the best name to give it. "Hmm. How about... Prewhistu?" he said, dragging out the word as it rolled of his tongue. Pre for pretty. Whi for white. Stu for stuff. Sure, he could have made something up, but it didn't seem very logical. It was probably better to name things for a reason, and the stuff was white... and felt hot on his paws. It seemed a logical and suitable name to him, but he had to glance at her with anticipation on his face to see if she too would like it.

He thought then to his brother. His opposite in every direction, from the colour of his pelt and eyes to his attitude and confidence. He wondered if he was nice to Bella. She should have a nice brother, someone to look out for her. Someone to be there when the walls came tumbling down. For some reason, he didn't think he would be good at that sort of thing. Not because he was heartless, but because he was so sure of himself. Adonis was selfless, he would always put others first, he couldn't think the same about his brother. Sure, he could be wrong, probably was, but from his initial meeting with the guy, before he had even joined this pack, he just got the feeling that they would never get on and that Bella would one day have to pick. It dawned on him then, that he needed to make a good impression and so far he had nearly wrecked the white stuff she seemed to cherish, and come up with a stupid, baby name for it. Doh.

"It sucks, doesn't it." he sighed and hung his head. He felt silly. Prewhistu? What was he, 3 months old? Geez. He couldn't even look at her, he just hung his head with shame and waiting for the laughs to come.

(This post was last modified: Jan 02, 2013, 08:01 PM by Adonis.)