howling ghosts— they reappear

Approaching midnight, cloudy.

'but you're a king and i'm a lionheart

"We used to thrive here," he breathed absently, his head tipped backwards as he searched in vain for glow of a star in the swarthy underbelly of the sky. His sigh was so rich that he nearly choked on it. His gaze fell to the dark hole that yawned before his feet. But he couldn't linger here. His friend didn't wish to stay very long. His friend appeared to be very busy. "I was too stupid to see it, of course, but we thrived." His amber eyes slid towards his prickly, slightly agitated companion who neither knew nor cared about the quality of life of an obscure "we." His companion only wanted this stranger to mind his own business and let him alone. However, the Ghost of the Hollow was too lonely and this creature was too slow as it ambled past him and into the forest. The red man wished that his friend would say something: he felt like he was rambling. Reluctantly, he tore himself away from the old den and returned to the side of his companion.

His train of thought wandered, "You have to understand, I thought I was doing everyone a favor by staying away..." When he looked toward the lumbering mound of quills for approval, he was met with silence — rejection. "I know, I know, I try to fix something and then I just end up breaking it." No reply. The hollow man winced. "I thought I was a saint."

"But I'm just sorry."

Silence.

"I said I'm sorry."

the ghost of the hollow

(This post was last modified: Aug 02, 2013, 04:14 AM by Kiche.)

like my art? comission me!

Home. The word had a ring to it that called to Calla even from Fireweed rise. Once she had finished cavorting in the crimson flowers, the pale female had realized finally that she had come back to Relic Lore. She had found it! The yearling had then put her feet to the ground and run, run as fast and far as she could. She knew these lands. She knew where Grizzly Hollow had been located in comparison. Sure, she herself had not stepped foot in the places she passed through until now, but she had heard of them, and learned as a child where they lay in relation to the hollow. North. She would go north. The tall trees of cedarwood began to appear, and it only sought to spur the youth faster, her breath coming in great pants from her lungs. Calla's golden eyes, borne of her mother Jaysyek searched around as she grew closer to the world she had known as a child.

Pawsteps began to slow, her full tilt sprint slowing as if she had turned off the spigot on her energy. As the girl grew closer, she noticed that things were becoming far more familiar.. but at the same time, they were strange, foreign. A frown marred her features as she approached, looking around. The trees seemed right but also wrong. Too large...The positions had changed. It took the young female some time before she realized that it was neither trees nor positioning that had changed. But her. She was larger now, and had a different perception on the world - the trees were now from the perspective of an adult, not that of a young child. Calla smiled, her tail wagging animatedly over her back as she bounced through the trees, towards the heart of what was once Grizzly Hollow. Perhaps it should have worried her, that the scent markers were long since dissolved, washed away in the rains.

She knew that when they had left, they had entrusted the pack to others, and Calla in her naievety, had become convinced that the Hollow would still hold onto these trees, still call Cedarwood its home. She would rejoin the pack and live in her pup hood den, she would find her sister Taima while remaining where she was familiar with. However, she realized something was certainly amiss when she finally stepped paw on the grounds that she had romped as a child, frowning as she glanced down. Yes, this was certainly the clearing that she and her siblings had froliced in as puppies.. but it was overgrown. Where dirt had once ruled supreme, grass and leaves had taken control. Quietly, the small female stepped closer, intending to go scour for their old den. It was then that a voice bespoke, breaking the silence, and she lifted her head, an expression of joy on her face. They must still live here! Maybe they had just moved dens! That would be wonderful! She could live in the den that her family had once inhabited.. Just her and her sister Taima.

The golden child bounced forward, her tail wagging over her back as she broke through the ring of trees, only to skid to a halt. Who...was that wolf? He was talking.. but not talking to anyone she could see. A frown marred her muzzle once again, and Calla looked around, a soft whine eminating from her lips. "Is...Is this the territory of Grizzly Hollow?" Certainly, it had to be.. right? Her mother and father had trusted the pack to their friends.. They would not have just left it without a care.. right? Calla Lyall swallowed, frowning as she glanced over her shoulder back towards the grounds she had once played as a child. Golden eyes roamed the familiar trees and lands.. Yes, she was indeed in the right place, but where had the Hollow wolves gone? If she was to find her sister, she would have to have a base of operations that was familiar to Taima. But, Calla well knew the rules of a Lone Wolf. She had had quite the uncomfortable brush with it the past few weeks.

The yearling was not quite herself just yet - she was still working her way past the experiences of traveling to Relic Lore. Her initial bravery in leaving Greying Glades to find her sister had ebbed in the wake of becoming lost. The fear that she would not only never find Relic Lore or her sister, but that she would forever be lost from her own familiy had begun to eat at that courageous interior. It would mend, however, and the excitement of seeing her old den had her acting not at all unlike a puppy that she had been before. She was sure that the Hollow wolves still lived here. Calla knew they had to! She would find them, request to rejoin the pack as a rightful member, as she belonged, and then she would begin her search for taima in earnest. "My father and mother entrusted the Hollow to their friends. They wouldn't have left, right? This is Grizzly Hollow territory.." She was determined that it WOULD be the territory of the pack.

What would her parents think when she returned with Taima to tell them that the Hollow had been dissolved? It was terrifying to think of, actually. A fire lit in the breast of the child as she waited for Kiche to speak, to answer the questions she had posed at him. It didn't matter if the Hollow no longer existed. She would MAKE it exist again! Calla knew that for a fact within the cavern of her breast. She would see to it that the wolves of Grizzly Hollow rose again to make their mark on the land. She would make it so her family could return to Relic Lore and be safe from the demons they had run from before. Calla took a step closer to Kiche, her attention on him completely as she moved, eyes focused on the larger male. "Where are they?"

Words: 460

"I've told you time and time again, girl, they won't be here." The chiding voice of Pangur Ban echoed in her hollow mind. He had told her time and time again, and time and time again she'd chosen to ignore him. But it was beginning to weigh upon her. They wouldn't really be gone. Borden and Jaysyek would be waiting for her. They always had been, waiting and willing to take her back in. Aisling loved Jayse so. Aisling simply longed to see her friend again. "I wish you'd just listen to me. Go find somewhere else." There was an inkling of care in the feline's voice, and Aisling whipped her head around, amber eyes catching his ghostly form in a dark-barked tree. <b style="color:#388d10">"There is no where else, Pangur!" She yelled at him, ears pinned back. Her eyes were wide with emotion, but she was far too exhausted to let anything out. She could smelled the forest from here.

The cat hissed at her and disappeared, leaving Aisling alone to tread again, forward and forward. That's all she'd been doing. And if she wasn't moving forward, she was dead on her paws, likely asleep like a horse. She was razor thin, ribs exposed through matted white fur. Aisling Halleck had been pretty once upon a time, but she hadn't seen her reflection in an age. It reached a point, however, where she could feel the dirt on her, gritting against her skin, she could feel the mats in her fur. But she moved forward. There would be time to groom when she was home, where she rightfully should have been if not for the damned feline. But she couldn't deny him. He was wonderful company and occasionally there was care in his voice. She no longer required his consul, but would listen to it. And likely choose to ignore it like she had. The trees around her began to change.

She became frantic, her paws dragging though her legs pumped with a vengeance. She was stumbling over herself as the land around her became familiar. She was nearly there. She paid no attention to the scents around her, knowing somehow that they would betray what she already knew so well, what Pangur already knew. There were voices in the trees, and she thought herself more mad than she already was. The den was in sight, and she longed to fall into it. Through the crumbling back entrance she slid, swallowed instantly by darkness and silence, though it was only temporary. Her nose was buried in the dirt, and the dirt smelled like dirt. Her heart sank instantly. "I told you." He hissed, though she could not see him now. It was unlikely he would face the underground as she had. "There is someone here, Aisling." He said, not quietly, not that it mattered, for no one else but her could see him.

The first voice she missed, the voice that she'd thought was disembodied when she had neared the den. But the second voice was female and clear. Aisling hunkered down, suddenly aware that she had not been silent in her desperation to get into the den. Unless their own voices had drowned her out, whoever the woman was talking to and the woman herself, would know she was here. "One of them seems to be asking of Grizzly Hollow..." The cat noted, and Aisling shushed him, ears pinned back as his brown eyes glowed silver-white in the darkness. <b style="color:#388d10">"speech."