The Sound of Silence

Nayeli enters the realm of relic lore -- open for anyone at all!

The world - at least this part of it - was devoid of any color. Snow blanketed the ground wherever it could, weighing down trees and branches with obscuring drifts of monotonous white. Nayeli waded through it, making her way forward slowly but surely. Frozen white particles landed on her back and shoulders without melting, adding many more stars to her night-black pelt. It stuck to her chest and legs as well, albeit in a less flattering manner. Chunks of ice were beginning to accumulate in her fur, and every few minutes the she-wolf would stop and chew them from her toes and forelegs. With a small frown she stopped once more, eyeing the forest around her thoughtfully as she went to work on the ice. I must be crazy to be traveling further North at a time like this... she thought wryly to herself. But she couldn't exactly stop now... she'd heard rumors of a region of pure wilderness, the home to many packs and lone wolves, somewhere up ahead. That is, if I'm not lost again, she thought, smiling with a sort of jovial pessimism. Beneath that, she felt a sense of hopefulness that almost scared her. She wanted to find this place because it sounded like the kind of place that drew in wolves. Perhaps... some of her family might have found there way here - but that was exactly the kind of hope she didn't want to be feeling, because in the past it had always been proved to be painfully false. Instead she let herself hope that she might find a new home or purpose here.... But "here" didn't really look like the kind of place anyone would want to be. For the last several miles, the forest had grown ever thicker around her, and to Nayeli the cold silence seemed to have become almost foreboding. Could this really be this place she was searching for? The snow didn't seem to be slowing - the sky was a thick veil of grey that no gaze could pierce. Everything around her seemed to be muffled - she could hear nothing but snow falling, soft as the whisper of an owl's wing, and the gentle sound of running water kissing new ice somewhere up ahead. She could smell nothing but the cold, crisp winter air - perhaps it would be better to find a place to rest and stay warm until the worst was over. First, though, she wanted a drink. With a flick of her tail, Nayeli began to move again. Her meandering prints wove from one shapeless white form to the next as she looked for a likely place to take shelter while moving in the direction of the brook <b style="font-size:10px; color:#cecece;">"Speech."

(This post was last modified: Dec 15, 2013, 05:53 AM by Nayeli.)

Weird post is weird, and rambling, lol, sorry. :p

vexx — a loaded gun and a bastard's history There was a vague, instinctual though it was, knowledge that Vexx was beginning to retrace his steps from his first entrance upon the lands known to the locals, he had came to learn, as Relic Lore. Southern bound he was, putting more distance than the Warprince of Phantom’s Path had, initially, meant to put between himself and Magnolia Glen’s borders. It struck him as a prospect - a potential pack to offer his alliance and talents too; in return for socialism and, perhaps more importantly, shelter against the winter. Cold and barren as it was already, Vexx couldn’t help the innate feeling that it was only bound to get worse before it became better. A month into winter they were already, but Spring still felt like a lifetime away. A distant flicker of hope and life in the stinging kiss of winter’s icy death. Already, hers - even the woodland creatures that worked as minimal nourishment, their soul purpose to avoid starvation not to actually provide the satisfaction that accompanied a full stomach - were either going or inherently gone. The underlying allure of living by his own laws dimmed in comparison with having to choose either life or death. There was a proper way to die, his uncle had always told him, and starvation (and/or the gleeful prospect of freezing to death) was not it. Until the time that he found acceptance within a pack’s borders and donned their ranks and scent as his own, the contemplation of “joining up” with another loner or two, just to be able to muddle through the time that he (and effectively they) had in the meantime had been something that Vexx had been playing with for some time. While the idea of usurping Varken and even his hero of a father’s legacy was still as tempting as it had been when Vexx had been but a child - still partially relying upon his mother’s milk - had not ceased, Vexx was nothing if not practical and there was nothing remotely practical about putting his pigheadedness and arrogance over common sense. Yet, even that idea had it's own pitfalls. It would be too easy - perhaps with too many - to attempt to establish something of a hierarchy between them, and Vexx could think of numerous ways that would be messy. Vexx was not looking for a mess (not that he wasn’t willing enough to assert dominance if given the chance). He was simply looking for another set of eyes, ears, and teeth. Two were better than one - combined body heat would lessen chances for hypothermia, two could bring in more food, and would, the way Vexx saw it, be beneficial up until they day they parted ways. It sounded ideal in the Artok’s mind, but he had come to find that things did not tend to go the way he had envisioned. Perhaps it is better if I test my luck with the packs available to me and not bother forming a loose companionship, He thought with a hefty sigh that left a quickly fading trail of steam that furrowed from his black, leathery nostrils. Companionship required minimal trust (at best) and that was only as good as if the two got along. Vexx was not particularly known for his ability to get along well with others, as sad a truth as it was. Golden eyes touched the landscape around him, absurdly missing the disorienting fog that he had became well accustomed to navigating of the Copse - a territory he had taken a rather perverse fondness too - as the barren touch of winter stretched on, lingering through the forest, even as Vexx followed the winding creek - though it was more than likely a brook that he now followed, twisting, more parts of it seeming to be frozen. Beneath the ice he thought that he could see the water struggling to move, an occasional bubble sliding along the length of ice before it popped beneath the ice. Turning his head away from the brook he took a step forward, only to stop when he saw a creature moving in his general direction. At first, it was nothing more than a shadow, but then began to take the shape of a canine. A bark, carried by the barren trees that the brook wound through, was given to her, alerting her to his presence - on the off chance that she had yet to spot him. Fierce, golden eyes studied her, unabashed (at least Vexx was pretty sure he scented her as a female) even from the distance that still existed between them, head high, his posture rigid by nature, as he tried to determine from sight alone if she would prove to be friend or foe.

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Perhaps she had misjudged this place. While it had at first seemed to be devoid of life, she now realized that she was not alone at all. Another figure appeared to be visiting the same little stream that she was seeking out - a smudge of grey and brown marred the pristine white snows ahead, upwind, a figure that even at this distance she could identify as wolven. Pausing at the sight of the stranger, Nayeli stood with one paw suspended in the air, thoughts springing to her mind. Was he hostile? Sick? Dangerous in some other way? She placed her foot back onto the snowy ground, irritated with her own wild suspicions. Even as she did so, a bark of greeting rang out through the frozen silence, shattering it. She knew it was wise to be cautious of strangers, especially strangers that were alone, to a certain point, but in this season, in her situation... well she couldn't really hope to learn anything if she didn't start chatting up the locals eventually. Returning his bark with one of her own, she began to move forward once more. In the moments between their greetings and actual meeting, as she approached across the white 'scape, she studied him. The bark marked him out as a male, but even if it hadn't, the fact would have been hard to miss. He was around her size, categorically, but the musculature beneath his pelt was bulky enough to be notable even from a distance - something that could not be said of most females. He looked to be in good enough health, and although the gaze he was fixing her with as she approached didn't exactly seem kindly, neither did it seem outright malevolent. Seeing him close-up, she decided he might be a bit younger than herself, although it was difficult to tell. Nayeli paced toward the stream, steering herself toward a spot where the sluggish brook seemed to channel between some rocks. They were close enough to speak normally now, although she had left a wider verge than she might have with a wolf she knew a little better than this one. Halting next to the icy rivulet, she faced the man and gave him an arch smile. <b style="font-size:10px; color:#cecece;">"Hey there. Is this your turf?" she asked. She saw no point in beating around that particular bush. She hadn't smelled any territorial markings, but with all this snow it was possible she'd missed them, and since leaving her birthplace she'd learned that trespassing was one of the fastest ways to get on someone's bad side.

(This post was last modified: Dec 16, 2013, 05:22 AM by Nayeli.)

vexx — a loaded gun and a bastard's history For a moment it seemed that neither were discontent with staring at each other within the safety of their areas - distanced between one another as they were, until Vexx, fearlessly broke the silence with his bark. It echoed in the stark landscape between them, bouncing back at him. Hostility was not Vexx’s intention though if she had, perhaps, taken him as being such there was little he would do to rectify that -- unless of course she answered with hostility of her own and a fight ensued. It wasn’t that Vexx couldn’t handle himself in a fight, but more of the fact that for reasons that were nearly painstakingly obvious he did not wish to start one. Besides being a massive and highly unnecessary waste of energy and health (especially since both -- if the lack of a pack scent upon the tendrils of her fur was right in steering the Artok’s assumptions -- were loners and realistically did not need injuries or the resulting energy drain) it seemed, well, rather silly and horrendously pointless to fight with a stranger. Not that having someone you know challenge you, or fight you in a duel to the death was something to be desired - if anything Vexx felt that such an action would be a massive insult. Given the direction of his thoughts, he attempted to soften his facial expression so that it was, perhaps, not so fierce (not that he could see what his face looked like, he could only guess). The female, as she moved closer, was colored similarly to his parabati, his brother in arms, ‘Senio DiSarinno (and incidentally Vexx’s only friend - too much like his brother than competition), except ‘Senio had sported an inky coat of full black - as was dominate in the DiSarinno line from what the other boy had told him - whereas the woman had some white mixed in her coat, the details becoming clearer the closer she moved. Vexx stood still, deciding that it was better he stay rooted, though acknowledged that while she had moved closer as to avoid the need to shout, there was more than adequate distance between them. The female gave Vexx a smile, that he felt his twitch upwards in response. It wasn’t open friendliness, no, trust was something that needed earned - and accordingly the friendliness that came with trust - but it was a step forward from the chill that could easily rival that of winter’s in Vexx’s body language. Tail swayed across his hind legs in attempts to assure (if she had been wondering) that he was not hostile. While Varken Artok’s motto had been “shoot first, ask questions later”, Vexx operated on different rules; which was why they conflicted so much. Varken robbed Vexx of the leadership he had demanded because ‘You cannot work with me as a team, so you will remain an underling‘ which had been one of the numerous and building reasons Vexx had left. He liked to believe he was not that selfish but it would not have been all that surprising if the truth was he was that selfish. The woman spoke then, inquiring as to if the land around them belonged to him. For a few seconds, Vexx amused himself with the possibility of playing into it but lying had not been something that Vexx was found of, nor something he tended to practice, not to mention all the ways he could get caught in the lie and how horridly it could go wrong if he did. If there was any land that Vexx had come to grow fondly possessive over it was Umbra Copse, for however temporary it remained his home. That was not to say that someday, after establishing himself that he could not return to claim the Copse (providing that he was not beaten to the punch first) and build a pack -- but no time soon. <b style="font-family:georgia; font-size:11px; color:#D59100;">"Hello," Vexx returned her greeting, an amused smirk tugging at the edge of his lips. <b style="font-family:georgia; font-size:11px; color:#D59100;">"No, these are free lands. I profusely apologize if I sent the wrong message." A gentlemanly dip of his crown was given, imploring with the rare, but underlying charming side that really only the fairer sex got to see. <b style="font-family:georgia; font-size:11px; color:#D59100;">"I am Vexx, Vexx Artok, by the way." He introduced himself, having entirely shed his grandfather (and great grandfather’s) name of ‘Vasska’. He had never liked the infernal name anyway.

(This post was last modified: Dec 16, 2013, 08:48 PM by Vexx.)

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She wasn't sure, but there seemed to be the slightest moment of hesitation before he answered her question. After giving a greeting, the man informed her that the lands around them were unclaimed. An apology was uttered, and then the male dipped his head to her, giving his name - Vexx Artok. A smirk of her own tugged at her maw for just a moment as she wondered about the name - did most tend to find this man vexing? She didn't remark upon the matter, though. There was a time and a place for such little jibes, and this was not it. Instead she gave him a polite but brisk nod. <b style="font-size:10px; color:#cecece;">"Nayeli Stormwright," she offered in return for his name. Despite her general distaste for formalities, she gave her surname as well, on the small, hopeful chance that it might spark some recognition. <b style="font-size:10px; color:#cecece;">"Are you from around here, Vexx?" She continued, sweeping her gaze in a gesture that indicated the landscape around them. She used the term in a general sense, hoping that the man was not as new to the region as she was, and that he might be able to give her a bit of information about the area. Her thoughts so far had been centered around getting to realm of "lore", as the wolves who'd told her of it had called it, before winter truly and deeply set in, locking the world in it's annual frozen struggle. She hadn't really though to far ahead of that, but in the last leg of her journey she had begun to realize that this far North, winter came early and with a fury. Now that she had attained her goal, she didn't have much time to waste. She needed to find out if any of her family had come to this place, and rejoin them if they had. Of course, she recognized the unlikelihood of this, and so this particular goal remained buried beneath other contingency plans, like usual. She could find out about the packs around here (if there really were as many as the rumors had claimed) and perhaps join one - at least until spring came, if nothing else. Otherwise, she would need to find some sort of allies to hunt with, or else live on rabbits and mice and scraps all winter - a prospect which she recognized as teetering precariously close to starvation. She wondered what this Vexx's plan for survival was - she didn't smell the myriad of scents on him usually indicated a wolf belonged to a pack, but perhaps he had simply been away from them for a time. She studied him with a curious gaze, playing a sort of guessing game about the stranger with herself as she awaited his response.