Cold Water Creek All colors and cares fade to gray;

@Albireo, but anyone else is welcome as well! This is set near the Magnolia Glen borders.

Deneb drifted through the woods like a wisp of smoke, listless eyes scanning the landscape around him. His paws pressed imprints into the crust of snow underfoot, and with each step a tiny bit of scent was left behind, like a lingering signature. Beyond this there was little evidence Deneb had even been in the area. He had taken care to approach these lands surreptitiously, without calling attention to his presence, so that he might gather some information before revealing himself. The fallen lord had seen better days. Hunger ate at his belly like a cancer, like a selfish old friend. His once-lustrous coat was now even more off-white than usual, grimy and grey from wading through snow and frozen mud for weeks on end. It was funny how a few months could make such a difference. No longer did the hunt sustain his spirit – he was weary and worn, tired of wandering and searching for someone who did not want to be found. He had fought to keep up the search, even through this desolate winter, but nature would no longer allow him to have any priority other than simple survival. Deneb must swallow his pride, find a pack.... It must be some bitter joke of fate, then, that after so much searching, he was perhaps finally drawing close to his quarry. Deneb froze, his posture laced with electricity, sniffing with great interest at the borders he had found. Disbelief colored his fiery gaze, and with a puzzled snarl he thrust his nose into the very snow itself, marveling at the scent he found there. Could it really be? After all this time? Albireo. At first, the haggard brute could only sit and be astounded. After a moment a laugh rose up from his chest, erupting bitterly into the frozen air. After everything, was he to find his brother now, very likely a member of the pack Deneb had chosen to try and seek his shelter amongst? Once, Deneb had been more than a match for his brother, physically and mentally. The beast wondered if that would still be the case now. If his brother had found a pack for himself, then he would have food, shelter, allies... luxuries Deneb had put aside during his hunt. A part of Deneb wanted to run past this invisible border of piss on the ground, to find his brother and demand the truth, then tear his throat out and end it all. Another part of him told him that it might be smarter - and more satisfying - to wait just a little longer for his retribution. Perhaps he would play the game, as he always did, or perhaps it would end here. Raising his head, Deneb let loose a sharp, ringing bark. For so long, he had been fixated upon this moment, but now he found himself standing here with no plan, no cards in hand. Confused emotions swelled up and boiled in his veins, and he waited with baited breath to see who would come to meet him. He felt almost disconnected from the situation at hand, so quickly had it arisen and changed in nature. It was oddly liberating. "Speech,"

Despite the winter that raked its claws over Relic Lore and all of its inhabitants, Albireo had nestled himself in and allowed himself to grow far too comfortable in the fold of Magnolia Glen. Not a single wolf here knew or even suspected that he had been on the run, nor had they questioned his past. Hidden beneath the shadow of a mountain, Albireo felt there was no way his past wrongs could haunt him here. Even as his brother inched closer to finding him, Albireo was convinced the harsh winter must have held him back. It was hard enough to scrape out a living with the help of a pack, and doing so alone and traveling seemed like it would be an impossibility.

But then he heard it, the sharp staccato of a single bark. While Albireo could never forget his brother's voice, he still could hardly believe it was actually him. It was surreal, and Al was almost convinced it was his mind playing tricks on him. Perhaps it was only the croak of a raven, or a branch breaking under the weight of snow. Of course he could just return to the den, hide within the safety the pack would provide against any intruders. But Al just had to know if it was truly him.

Albireo tread over the snow as quietly as his paws would allow, his breath shaky and shallow with tension. Unease burned in Al's belly, and a nervous odor was already emanating from his skin. He kept his head low, and just as he peeked his skull around the thick trunk of a birch he saw him, just a ways off in the distance. There was no mistaking him now, and despite his somewhat bedraggled appearance it was definitely Deneb. If Deneb turned his head just the right amount, he could surly see Albireo's face peeking out, or see Al's rear end protruding from the other side of the tree.

Albireo felt a flush of adrenaline, warm and electric, course through his veins. The last time he had seen his brothers face it had been twisted into the ugliest, most furious snarl Al had ever seen on anyone. Now, Deneb looked quite neutral, but Albireo didn't think that his brother had come to make any sort of amends. Slowly, with the greatest care to keep silent, Al began to back away. But then a clod of ice cracked underfoot.

Water is beginning to freeze and some fish are trapped. Hunt Opportunity

The echoes of his call rang and died. Deneb waited as quiet overtook the landscape again, his breath steaming in the air and his eyes searching the crowding trees. Again the landscape lay dead around him. No one appeared to challenge the stranger at the doorstep, and for a moment he wondered about this pack. Then a sound shattered the silence, and Deneb's attention snapped to focus on the source. Lurid eyes pinpointed a flash of movement between the trees, and without a sound Deneb sprung forward, making towards it. Albireo's scent grew stronger in his nostrils, fueling the tired beast to action once more. As Deneb charged around a final tree, he was finally greeted by the sight he'd been chasing for so long. Snow kicked up in a plume as he halted within inches of his brother, staring down the other male. His tail was rigid behind him, his frame felt like a coiled spring. Emotions chased each other through his mind in rapid succession, too fast to be made sense of. His gaze was colored by disbelief; he felt almost as if Albireo might vanish even now in a puff of smoke, laughing as he went. Deneb tried to pin his kin with his gaze, although if Albireo tried anything, he was prepared to leap on him, to hold him here and demand answers. His lips twisted into a rictus, half-snarl, half-grin as a thousand words fought to spring from his jaws. "My brother..." was the first thing to escape him, the words as cold and brittle as steel. "How? Why?!" Full sentences seemed to be beyond him. He hadn't laid eyes on Albireo since that night, and now Deneb had been thrown back to that dark memory. He felt the emotions he had been ignoring for so long - the shock and sorrow of seeing his children's lifeless forms, the loss of his pack and mate; but most of all the anger at the betrayal of his right hand, his brother.

In a flash the very thing Albireo had been running from for months was upon him. He started to run, paws clambering clumsily over snow and catching a hidden root. He used his momentum as he fell to turn himself, coming face to face with a furious pair of yellow eyes. His brother, often eloquent, could this time only sputter a question. What was Albireo to do? Apology was a repulsive thought that he quickly dismissed. Of the two, Deneb was the master of deception, but Albireo didn't see any reason he couldn't lie his way out of this either.

"I didn't even do anything!" Albireo whined as his posture began to sink. "It wasn't my fault! You know Pollux," Albireo shook his head, an uncanny giggle leaving his mouth that had been meant to be a amiable chuckle. "He was always getting into things! I just, I couldn't stop them, the little prince wants what he will! You know, I loved them just as much as you, I'd never touch a hair on their heads! I swear though! I had nothing to do with it! Nothing!" As a half formed defense tumbled haphazardly from his lips his voice pitched upwards to a shriek. Fear marked his countenance, with black lips pulled back into a tight toothy grin, and a circle of brilliant white bordering the muted brown of his irises. His body shook, and despite the open space at his back he felt cornered.

With his brother finally before him, Deneb's anger and sorrow screwed themselves up and made a lens. Through it he viewed the other Cygni, a snarl still twisting his features. "If that were true," he shot back, stepping forward even though the distance between them was already certainly uncomfortably small for Albireo. "then you should have stayed and explained yourself, rather than running like a criminal." The smiling and simpering of his brother only made him more angry, but Deneb still clung onto his rationality, even if his grip was less and less sure. Albrieo looked healthy and hale, a fair sight better than his sibling. "Have you made some new friends here? ...Do they know what you are?" Deneb didn't believe Albrieo's tale; partly because he wasn't sure if he could ever stop blaming the other wolf, no matter what the truth was, and partly because the stupid look on his brother's face just pissed him off. He had the nervous, unrepentant air of a liar, or at least this was how Deneb saw him, through his self-constructed looking glass of long festering rage.

Albireo widened the distance that his brother closed, skittering backwards like a frightened cat. The black guard hairs bristled at his back in an attempt to puff himself up bigger than he was. He was trying to put up a formidable defense, but nerves and fear still rattled his limbs. He knew he could run, but a sort of slimy pride kept him hanging on to this awkward confrontation. The pack was a safety net at his back, one he could retreat to if things got out of hand. Albireo wasn't sure if he would call them friends, but what did it matter? They took him in with no questions asked, and that was enough for him. Though Al much preferred that his questionable past was kept out of Phineas reach, since he already didn't have much of the alpha's trust. Albireo decided to sidestep Deneb's question with more of his own.

"Well, what do you think I am I then? You seem to have all the answers, but then why seek me out?" Albireo growled, his pearly teeth clacking together in defiance. Him and Deneb had always had an understanding as brothers, as partners... had. Now, Albireo didn't care if he caused pain towards his own kin. "Besides, your darling must be getting lonely, with you leaving her behind to chase me down." Albireo taunted, an ugly sneer on his face. If lies couldn't shake his brother off, maybe he could guilt him into leaving. He knew Deneb's mate couldn't have come with, not smelling her on Deneb's coat at all.

(This post was last modified: Feb 17, 2014, 05:07 AM by Albireo.)

There is a rabbit's nest nearby. +1 Health

Deneb continued to pace forward, inexorably toward his brother. By this point all of his senses, all of his emotions, had been fixed squarely upon the other Cygni. Had they really been so close, once upon a time? It seemed like a lifetime ago now. The scent of rabbit went unheeded to his nose for the moment, even in this season of desperation. In all honesty, he had expected his brother to run. Perhaps Albireo did have a bit of a spine after all - or perhaps having a pack made him feel as if he had something to put his back up against. His sibling was chattering again, spewing more meaningless words. Deneb had not come here just to hear misdirection. "Answers...?" he repeated the word, voice as cold and brittle as ice. Everyone had given him answers - his pack, his beloved Taro - but none had been able to give him the truth. "I want to know the truth. I want to know exactly how they died." At them mention of his mate, Deneb's anger had intensified by another degree, though he fought to keep himself from showing it. Deneb had always been the one to keep things hidden behind his mask and silver words. The last thing he wanted now was for Albireo to know he'd struck a nerve. Despite himself he recalled the sadness in Taro's eyes as she looked upon their dead children, the coldness between them that had followed. It had seemed to Deneb that the soul had gone out of her that day. Everyone had different ways of dealing with the pain. He had focused all of his anger and hatred upon his traitorous brother. She had turned the blame to Deneb, declaring that only a fool would ever trust Albireo. He'd wanted to go after his brother then and there, but foolishly he stayed for her, for the pack, trying to repair a creation that was broken beyond hope. She had shut herself off from him; her heart had been gone long before she'd left. After that there had been nothing to keep Deneb from his hatred, from his hunt. "I think," he spat, "that you're a lair and a coward, who would let his own blood die and then run away from the truth. Or did you kill them yourself?" Rather through malicious intent or simple incompetence, he was certain that it was Albireo's fault. Perhaps if his brother only told him the truth, he might be able to have some closure, show some mercy... or perhaps he would kill his brother once the truth was out. The only thing he was certain of is that he did not want the truth to die with Albireo.

(This post was last modified: Feb 26, 2014, 03:40 AM by Deneb.)

It bothered Albireo how Deneb managed to keep neatly detached and composed, at least on the outside. But if he knew his brother as well as he thought he did, he knew Deneb would be roiling inside. This was far beyond a simple siblings quarrel, and it delighted a part of Albireo to see just what an effect he had on his kin. He couldn't help but tug on the tiger's tail.

Again his brother pressed for answers. A high pitched whine squealed from Albireo's throat, though it wasn't clear whether the noise was due to excitement or apprehension. Somewhere along the way the confrontation had morphed into a dangerous round of keep-away that Al couldn't help but play. Albireo had something that Deneb did not, and Albireo figured he had the upper hand here. Albireo threw his head upwards as he puffed out his chest, staring Deneb right in the eyes with his own muddy dark pair.

"Considering you're a lowly lone wolf standing at the border of another pack, I don't think I need to answer you. I don't know why you think I owe you anything." Albireo scoffed. He narrowed his eyes in an attempt to look menacing, but only managing to look like he was squinting at something. His tail swished up over his back, and his face brightened as he thought of something. "Infact, I can call on the leaders and let them know you were trying to steal from us," He said as a toothy grin spread across his face, sure that he had outsmarted Deneb this time.