Oak Tree Bend one for joy, one for pain

RE - This fortnight, the rains seem to have stopped.
Morning, Partly Cloudy — Current Temperature: 55° F/13° C

you do not know who is your friend or who is your enemy until the ICE breaks. It had been a long time since the clouds had bore any rain - not that it was something unusual for summer, but with the heat of days their shallow creek was having it tough, and Ice ill liked to range further just to drink. Something about him made him grumpy, and he had decided the woods they lived in where weird. Not their little corner, no, but the further west or north you went, the stranger it become. Dark, dank, mist clinging to your paws and all sounds muted. It was very, very weird. Ice didn't like weird things that much. And so, he resolutely stuck to their drying creek. Right now he stood with his pads in the shallow water, lapping at the faint trickle and trying to kill the worry in his heart. Things should be good. Things should be perfect, but they weren't, because Marsh was missing. Ice stared at his own reflection as he drank, meeting his distorted silver eyes, and after a moment he stopped without realizing it.. simply peering into his own face, as if it'd turn into Marsh's, or that his copper head would show up right beside him. Hadn't they stood like this before, together, peering into the waters of the Grove? Marsh's steel eyes so uncharacteristically soft, his grizzled face untroubled, merging easily with Ice's pale one - the knot in his gut tightened, teeth grinding together dryly. He'd sent Marsh out ahead with Triell.. expecting to meet him when they came over with the rest of the pack.. yet he'd seen neither hide nor hair, and now Ice's sons were born, and Marsh still wasn't home. Would he come in time, to see them when they first tumbled out of the den and into the sun? He hoped so. Oh, how he hoped so. .ice aesir

let the stars above shine in your soul

It was nice to know that around the Spectral Woods that most of the Oak Tree Bend pack had settled down. The territory would definitely need much time to get used to. It was hard trying to keep up with everyone now though, for Jessie found herself constantly bumping into bushes and ferns. Being so use to the confines of Swift River territory had made the salt and pepper colored woman careless and now she was finding that she needed to be more alert than ever now. She still was not sure if it was completely safe on this side of the mountain but she thought better than to express her fears to either Corinna or Ice. She had chosen to come with them in the end anyway and even if she did have her fears, her place was below both of them. Eventually, the young Swiftpaw found herself gravitating towards the creek once again. She found that is was somewhat similar to the river back in the Sacred Grove and she found comfort, especially in seeing the fish float by if there were no disturbances.

Once again, when she would visit the creek, she would not be alone. The sight of her snowy Guardian brought a small smile to her face, though it quickly faded when she saw the man. Standing in the shallows of the creek just was not something that Ice did. The man loathed the water and preferred to stay away from it whenever he could. If something was wrong with the man, Jessie sure did not know what it was. Her thoughts on him and Marsh were at the back of her mind, due to the fact that she had not known much about the relationship between the two wolves. She had once assumed something, but when she had gotten too caught up in pack life, the memory slowly faded away from her mind, her brain classifying the memory as non important.

Walking up to where she was next to her snowy friend, she bumped her muzzle comfortingly against his shoulder, her emerald eyes gleaming up at him. Quietly, she asked him, "What is the matter, Ice?" She tilted her head as she stared at him, her eyes radiating the concern that she was feeling. If something was wrong with Ice then obviously something was wrong, because, to Jessie, Ice was one of the toughest men she had ever met and if something was truly bothering him then the Oak Pack was not in peace. Hesitantly, she pressed her small side against his large one, trying to give him the comfort he had always given her.

Feel free to kill me.. xD

you do not know who is your friend or who is your enemy until the ICE breaks. The shallow water reflected the sky and his face, lukewarm and depleting day by day, but those things became small, insignificant beside the mounting worry in his soul. Not even the sun was warm, and his brows drew together in a troubled expression, silver eyes soft and sorrowful. He had never expected this parting to tear out his soul, to make his heart this heavy.. to have stupid hope tug at his heart each time his ears pricked with the approach of someone, only to plummet when it didn't reveal the scent of him... Lost in his misery, unable to leave the pack to look for him, Ice didn't notice Jessie was padding up to him until she touched him. Maybe he had known she was there, subconsciously decided she was no threat, and simply let her be, but he nearly jumped at her touch, swinging his head around to peer at her in a rather sober fashion. She asked what was the matter, her small form pressing against his, and a bitter half-laugh escaped his maw, a sound so foreign coming from Ice. What was the matter, if not everything? His eyes fell down to the drying creek. Water was the matter. His sons were fine, Corinna was fine, the pack was fine.. aside from those who were missing. "Marsh," he finally said, his voice more like a croak, and the storm clouds gathered in his eyes again. Ice heaved a black, bleak sigh, and let his head fall towards the creek again, meeting his own distorted silver eyes. Marsh was the matter.. Marsh was missing, and each day, the hole in his heart grew larger. .ice aesir

let the stars above shine in your soul

Holy shit. Jessie is killing ME!

When she had arrived by Ice’s side, one thing she had not been expecting was for him to jump away from her in shock. Though, she was comforted when he returned to her side and it had not been the mere presence of her being there that had pushed him away, rather her shocking him. This caused another stir of worry to swirl within her. Ice, as he was a Guardian, was not one to get shocked easily, especially when it came to being on new grounds. In all honesty, when he voiced what was happening with him, she froze on the stop almost, cursing herself silently and scolding her tense muscles and in a few moments, they relaxed. How stupid had she been not to realize this? The memories of the bond that she had noticed Marsh and Ice share months ago return to her and she felt an awful flush creeping its way over her body. Pushing her jealous thoughts away from her mind, she looked at the crumpled form of her alpha, nuzzling his shoulder in another attempt at comfort.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to search for some words that could comfort her friend, "I’m sure you miss him, Ice…in a way, I can understand that," she paused, her mind briefly flashing back to Hotei and his burnt form. None of her pack mates had known about him and her, though she could only guess if they had figured anything that had gone on between them, she could hardly have known, but for the time being she assumed that Ice had no knowledge of her…close relationship with the Tainn and the horrible scars he had left her with his departure. Sighing, she continued on, "But you also have the rest of us…we’re here for you…Ice…it’s not healthy to bottle up what you’re feeling all the time."

When she replayed what she had said a few times, she felt like, to herself, she sounded like a complete moron. The Swiftpaw had never been one to speak rightfully and sometimes her words came out in a confusing manner, for comfort was not an area she had specialized in, but she would do the best that she could. While she sounded like an idiot to herself, she knew that she was telling her Snowball Guardian the truth. She had known from personal experience that bottling everything up and not talking about things made it even harder than it had to be. She just simply wanted to help her superior out in every way that she could, even if it did end up hurting her in the process. Hopefully, he would not get too mad at her.

you do not know who is your friend or who is your enemy until the ICE breaks. He wasn't even sure what he wanted from the world anymore. He had never wanted to be a leader; at least, he had never thought he wanted to, but apparently he had, because he had forcibly ousted Marsh from the position left behind by Indru. And here he stood, with everything a male wolf would want: a strong co-leader, two healthy sons, a loyal pack, new territory teeming with wildlife... Yet he felt like he'd give it all up, step aside without a doubt, if it could return Marsh to him. Surely he was safe, even if he was lost; Triell and Marsh were strong wolves, after all. He sighed, again, staring at his own gray-eyed reflection. He wasn't even sure he wanted to be comforted. "I'm not bottling it up," he protested, weakly, still staring down at the shallow trickle of water. Or was he? To him, it sounded like Jessie just wanted him to.. shake it off, or something. Yes, he had the rest of the pack, but none of them were Marsh. Slowly he closed his eyes, and exhaled through closed teeth. "I just wish he was home." Home, where Ice could see him, could see the copper glints struck in the auburn fur, where Ice could patrol with him, lay down to sleep next to him, and share that silent, strange something they had. He'd never thought it'd hurt this much to be away from him - he'd missed him when they'd first sent him away with Triell, but he'd known they'd be reunited soon.. and he'd managed. It was this.. this strange parting, the distance between them, the uncertainty, that wore him down. With a casual roll of his shoulders Ice took another step into the thin stream, barely wetting his ankles as he did so. "We don't even know if they're alright..." he mumbled, not sure if Jessie would hear him or not. Or if she'd hear, and tell him to forget about it. But how could he? .ice aesir

let the stars above shine in your soul

His reply back to her almost caused her to flinch away from him, but she remained still, not wishing to upset the large beast anymore than he was already hurting. A large weight also weighed down on Jessie’s chest, one that she imagined was the same one that was crushing her superior. She wished to reach out to him and help him through his hardships, but she was not the best when it came to comfort. In the end, she always ended up shutting herself out anyway, not wanting to have their problem crush her too. It was a fear she had obtained when Cali had left her back at her past home. For a long time she had been secluded off from the others and though she had come to the Lore to get rid of such a fear, she knew that with each desertion the fear grew stronger, threatening to overpower her own will. Swallowing she continued to listen to what Ice said, remembering what he had said to her not too long ago, trying to reassure her…which was exactly what he had done.

Clearing her throat, she spoke again, "We can all only hope that they will both return to us safe." She stopped speaking, thinking over her options and trying to decide what she wanted to let go. Looking over to the slightly slumped form of her leader, she spoke again, not wanting to give him any false hopes, "But if they don’t return…then it’s like you said before, we can’t hold onto everything forever." She hung her head slightly, not wishing to say anymore to the white man beside her. She had tried to move past the pack mates that had left them. So many had, but she knew the one that truly stuck out to her, the one that would not let her move past everything. It was kind of the same situation that Ice was in, only Jess knew that Marsh would never leave them intentionally. Marsh was one of the most loyal wolves she had ever met, even if he was the most silent.

Kick mee~

you do not know who is your friend or who is your enemy until the ICE breaks. He didn't know what he was doing to her. Reading others had never been his forte, interaction coming off strange or jagged, but when it came to others, they needed to clout him on the head for him to know what they felt and meant. His eyes were distant, not seeing what she might have displayed, listening to her cautious voice with bitterness seeping through his veins. Hope. Hope was the thing which killed souls and strangled hearts, the thing which kept him trapped in painful limbo. It would be easier to stop hoping, to grow numb and dead and cold as last year's snow, but hope had dug in like a tick, a parasite, feeding him its poison. Hope was a hopeless thing, but he could not shake it off in any way. "I don't know if I can spend forever not knowing what happened to him, if he doesn't come back, Jessie," he said quietly, tilting his head back to peer up at the red rocks rising above him. Can I? he asked of no one in particular, listening to the wind answer his silent query with no words. Life goes on, the trickling water said, and Ice wished it would rise to a flood and sweep him away. "I don't even know when to stop waiting. How long is long enough? A month? A year?" He swallowed the rising tide of emotions, swallowed them but couldn't digest them; they lived in him like an infection, one he couldn't cure, or get out, fouling his existence but what could he possibly do about it? He ground his teeth together, the dry noise echoing through his skull. He had never wanted this kind of pain. They'd tried to escape it, but here he was, hurting worse than before. .ice aesir

let the stars above shine in your soul

She felt awkward just standing there. It was obvious that she was not comforting him. It was probably something Marsh could have done with simply being next to the large white man beside him. The gray woman did not want to have any tension between the two of them, but it was hard to cut through it since technically, she felt as if, both of them were uncomfortable. When he finally spoke again, her ears flicked towards him, an awful feeling starting to settle into her stomach. Had she not felt the same way when Hotei had ran off? She too had gone into a fit of depression at the time and Ice had been there for her. He had not pushed nor pried on what had rattled her up and though she was not sure if he had a sliver of a clue as to what the relationship between the two wolves were, nothing had been questioned. He had simply been there, which had been enough for her at the time. Hopefully, it would be enough for him.

When he spoke yet again, Jessie had to calm the rapid beating of her heart, her green eyes looking over towards him as he finished. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, she replied softly, "In these kind of situations, I don’t think the question is when…it’s how." She then turned back towards the water, a small grin on her face as she tried to lift the mood a little bit, "What would you do if I attempted to dunk you in the water?" She gave his side a little shove, a hopeful smile on her face. She didn’t like seeing her snowball down, it brought her own mood into a sour twist. Plus he still had plenty of things to be happy about, like Corinna and his children. Maybe they would ease some of the stress that weighed down on the man. She could not be sure, but maybe if something could take his mind off of Marsh for a little while, maybe..just maybe, he could be a little happier.

you do not know who is your friend or who is your enemy until the ICE breaks. "In these kind of situations, I don’t think the question is when…it’s how." While it was a solid bit of wisdom, it didn't exactly help. Ice's gray eyes fell to his reflection, watching the creek trickle by, and wondering if it even existed as a possibility in his world. How could he ever find a way to move on without Marsh? He might still come back, he tried to tell himself, to hammer down the nails on the breaking box the darkness lived in, but it was.. hard. It was hard to simply pretend everything was good and that Marsh was going to come home, when frankly, he had no idea if he would. They'd been there that morning.. why had they had to run away, leave them to find the tree alone? "What would you do if I attempted to dunk you in the water?" It took him a while to comprehend what Jessie was asking, so sudden was the switch in conversation, and for a moment he was simply silent. Triell, that black bastard of a beloved brother, had often dunked him in the water, though he'd always paid the price later. Slowly Ice turned to pin Jessie with his narrowed silver eyes. "I would mistake your tail for a fish and bring it home to Corinna," he rumbled at her, puffing up his chest and raising his hackles, but the slow, solemn twitching of his tail - and the fact that his arsenal of impressive fangs remained covered by his lips - gave the playfulness of it away. .ice aesir

let the stars above shine in your soul

They sat in silence for a little while and Jessie could only guess as to what Ice was thinking about her question. Soon enough her alpha turned to her, his eyes narrowed but stance playful as he replied. A small smile twitched on her lips, knowing full well that she could out run him any day. It would be easy for her to dunk him and then run with her small body to make her escape. That would be playing dirty though and that was something that Jessie normally did not do. Normally. Her tail flicked behind her as she rolled her eyes in mock aggravation at him for being such a pup. In a teasing voice she replied, "Is the big bad wolf afraid of a little water?" She then nudged him playfully with her shoulder, knowing that she would have to get her point across to him sooner or later. Looking down slightly with a serious frown in her eyebrows, she thought about how she could phrase her question without sounding like a brat.

Clearing her throat, she awkwardly tried to make the conversation run smoothly, "So umm..I’ve uh, heard that others can get roles within the pack…and uh…was wonderingifIcouldgetoneasaHuntress." She said the last part faster than the rest of her sentence, pleased that she had gotten the words out. Yep, totally nailed that on the head. She grinned up at him, a glimmer of hope in her jade eyes. She had been trying hard for the past year to do all she could to gain the pack role that she desperately wanted. She had done what others had done repeatedly on the borders, but she also pushed herself to keep the caches full and help feed the ones who did not have time to hunt on their own or was going through a hard time. This had happened a few times when Ice’s mood had been on the definite down low and Jessie had been trying to cheer him up. She had also made sure others got their fair share…and finally, she had wanted to bring up the topic with Ice.