The Lights are Bright Tonight

Quatre padded through the forest, wincing as the sprain in her front paw sent jolts of pain through her leg. She was weak and tired, her whole body sore. She heard the roar of falling water ahead through the trees. She plodded through the trees into a clearing. She saw the large cliffs with tons of water rushing down from above, rapids and smaller waterfalls higher up on the cliff-face. A creek jutted away from the pool of water that had collected at the base of the falls. She stumbled and fell, her legs crumpling beneath her. The fur on the bottom of her jaws hit the shore of the pool, water soaking her fur.

She did not know how long she lay there, unable to move. She struggled to get her front paws in front of her, but they just didn't want to move. She let a whine escape her, low and mournful. She glanced up at the darkening sky, noticing the start of the strange lights that liked to dance across the sky this time of year. She sighed deeply, eyes falling shut wearily.

~time shift~

Quatre's eyes snapped open to feel the sun beating down on her slumped form, her fur stiff from dried sweat and dew from the early morning dried in the sun. She tried to push herself to her feet again, and stumbled further into the pool of cool water. She dragged herself in and let the water lap over her sore body. She let out a low howl of loneliness. Even after several days in this territory, she had not yet been accepted into a pack. She was lonely and she wanted a friend.

"A bright future does not reveal the dark past..."

@Quatre

As quickly as she has sought to return to the lands she knew, the walk back towards familiarity was not with the same enthusiasm as when the expedition began. Her progress was slow, as if weighed physically by the thoughts that took hold of her mind. This change of pace, she would admit was due to the prior encounter shared in the fields now north of her and to her back. Strange how in a time before, a departure would not have bothered her. Yet she felt strange now taking her steps from familiarity to embark on the path toward something else just as meaningful. She had been gone from the pack for too long, in her opinion. And while she knew the wolves of the Glen to be capable, she did not wholly feel comfortable leaving the yearlings alone to their own devices. She had come to look upon them as she had the young of her previous mountain pack; not only her charges, but a deep part of the family she had left behind. They were her new family now; and she wanted to keep them whole.

Crossing silently through the daunting woodlands, she tread a little more south following the downward flow of the stream. She hadn't had the time nor care before to better explore the lands, but as she took to her role within the pack with more purpose, she felt inclined to note the fortuitous babbles of nature. There were few ferns worth plucking to take back for her lessons, but it was not the curling tendrils that kept the female by the basin of the falls. A long howl erupted suddenly in the afternoon, rousing her hairs to stand on end at its tone. It was sorrowful, yes, but an unnecessary tune that could bring down unwanted company if one was not careful. None the less, to silence the song, she approached its origin, her steps quite sound in her approach so as not to distress the caller by her silence.

Eyes of umber and amber regarded a smaller form on the lip of the basin. Ashen in hue with fur haphazardly skewed, no doubt from drying in the afternoon without further grooming. The beige wolf stood near but did not yet approach the second form until she was addressed.

(This post was last modified: May 16, 2014, 02:20 PM by K'arnae.)

A young pronghorn has fallen behind its herd and starved in the snow. +5 Health