Arbol Rosado i wrote the gospel on giving up

May 15th; Afternoon; Light rain, cloudy; 48° F/9° C

He wasn't sure why he had stayed by the Beaver Dam for so long, wasting his time and wasting away by walking away from it only to return shortly after. His stomach had been empty for more than a week and already he was starting to feel the hunger pangs pinch and pierce his hollow gut. The cough from deep in his lungs had mellowed, only to strike up again once he had found a place to settle down, where the pungent scent of wet cherry blossoms hung in the air. Wheezing until he eventually got his breathing under control (the rain certainly was a welcoming factor), he crawled on his elbows through the petal-covered grass to seek refuge beneath a very tall tree, whose boughs couldn't even be seen through the canopy created by the other surrounding forest giants.

Up against the trunk of the solitary tree he made himself comfortable, awkwardly cradled between its deep and wide-spaced roots, while the breeze brought its soft pink leaves and petals down to the earth all around him. He nestled his russet-hued head against the smooth gray bark, tucking his nose into his tail as he draped it over his side and hind limbs. Relic Lore was strange. It was absolutely nothing like home. Its rivers were too cold. Its trees were much too old. The winds that snaked through the gaps in the forests and over the little rivers and creeks were frightening at all hours of the day. Its wilderness as a whole felt too wild. However, that went without saying, location-wise; to a man who had become so oblivious to his own personal and spiritual growth as a predator and plagued by his past, the world felt as though it were one very unwelcoming place. It only made sense to him that he was the very definition of a stranger, an outsider, and would quite possibly always feel this way - always wandering, always hoping, and always slinking away as though he had done something wrong. Then, one day, the Corvinus wolves might destroy him once and for all... and until then he was doomed to simply biding his time.

For now, though, it seemed quiet without even a single scent on the wind, and for that Tannis Andreas was absolutely thankful. He could think and try to plan his next move, try to actually sleep and, most importantly, just be somewhere where he could keep to himself. After the handful of encounters he had endured over the past few days, he could only hope that he could remain undisturbed.

@Tannis: Sorry for jumping in, this thread looked in need of a response... :)
Timewise, this occurs just before she climbs the Mountain of Dire.

The black girl was soaked. She was soaked through and through, and she was loving it. It had rained often in her old home, and the river of cold, icy water which drained freely from sullen grey clouds above never failed to fascinate and excite the yearling, and today was certainly no exception. Frolicking through the wet like the youngster she was, Klio barked in excitement, her wet tail flinging water all over the peculiar pink-leafed trees as it never ceased to move.

A river seemed to suddenly plant itself before her paws, which slipped on the muddy banks, sending her sliding and squirming into the icy water. However joyful she had been previously, it was gone now. Nothing spoiled a good mood quite like falling in a cold river in the middle of a rainshower! Yelping and puffing frantically, the she-wolf swam for shore, but the current was raging in the wet.

The current carried her downstream until she slammed into a beaver's dam. She hadn't previously been fond of the fat, seemingly useless brown creatures, but she was know! Klio hauled herself out of the river by stepping on various parts of the dam. Giving herself a vigorous shake to rid herself of the agitating water, the black girl trudged off of the dam and up the shore to take shelter under more of the strange looking trees. Her nose made useless by the water which had been clogging it, she didn't know that the tree she stood shivering, wet, and miserable under the branches of was the same tree which Tannis was using for shelter.

The pale-eyed man had just let himself drift into the clutches of deep, dreamless sleep when he heard something - or someone - trudge up the river bank with sopping wet paws. His eyelids came up in a flash and his body shivered from the rain that had seeped down into his wiry coat. It had been months since he had shed his winter coat (at least what he had been able to acquire over the past autumn) and now he terribly missed it, even if it was almost always matted and collected within it a variety of twigs, small leaves, and other debris from his travels. At least it kept the cold out. His ears perked up and as soon as he saw a lupine-like figure stomp over to the tree that made up Arbol Rosado, he leapt onto his feet.

"WHOA," he warned with half a yelp, "Whoa-whoa. Whoa. Whoa. WHOA." Much like a cat his back arched and he clumsily stumbled backwards, rolling twice over until he had come to a stop, directly facing her while laying on his right side and shoulder. He peered up at her through the grass blades, a clear grimace on his face. He blinked twice, both instances caused by a raindrop landing in his right eye and "stinging" the tip of his leathery black nose. He shivered, exhaling once before inhaling an unpleasant whiff of the pervasive cherry blossom scent. A whimper emitted from him as he let his left ear slick back against his nape.

The more he looked at her, the more he realized just what he was up against. Well, really, regardless of whether the stranger had been taller or smaller than he was, Tannis Andreas didn't particularly have a chance at anything with being as submissive as he was. He stuck his tongue out a number of times, likening himself to a snake. His eyes narrowed and he donned a rather silly but apparently apologetic grin. "Is this your tree?" he whined. "If it is I'm really, really sorry... I-I was... I was just leaving."

He shifted his weight enough so that he could maneuver himself with the use of his elbows and the balls and heels of his feet. Moving somewhat to the left in an attempt to creep away, he caught his tail beneath his left foot was rendered immobile for a moment. Just in case she had been watching him (since his eyes had been pretty much narrowed to the point where they were practically shut), he peeked over at her, stark black figure. His left knee seemed locked as he hadn't realized just yet why he couldn't continue on his way with his tail pinned to the ground by his own feet. "I'm s-sorry," he apologized again, "Still leaving. I promise."

Movement caused the black girl to leap sideways in surprise. She hadn't noticed another wolf here. He seemed, off, somehow, and when she realized why, Klio shivered even more and whined. She hated to think what could've made him this way...

Only a few months ago that had been her. Ranked beneath the ground she stood on, a hunted wolf for running away from her mother before she was fully grown. The stranger's words and actions spelled one word loud and clear, over and over: submissive. She had to take a moment to figure out the name of the feeling she felt in response, and he had almost completely disappeared into the rain when she cried out.

"Wait! Hey, wait!" She raced after him and stood near the crouched figure. "You can stay. It's not my tree, and if anyone should be going, it should be me. You were there first, and I only needed a place to step out of the rain for a few seconds. I'm sorry for disturbing you." Klio said meekly, and this time she was the one giving him an apologetic grin and crouching. She didn't quite get as close to the ground as he; if she had as much "practice" at it as he, she might've come close.

Giving her wet tail a gentle wag (taking care not to soak him with the water that flew off of it), she introduced herself. "My name is Klio Zariadus of the Lone Wolves. May I ask who you are?"

He wheezed as the foreign woman - girl, he soon came to realize - drew close to him. She called after him, telling him to wait. His brows came together in sudden surprise and shock. He had dismissed her words that allowed him to stay and share the tree and now she was at his side, introducing herself. "MmmMMMMmm..." he hummed uncertainly as he placed her name to memory. For a while he stared at her feet and shoulders as she, too, also crouched down in the grass.

Had he had more courage or understanding that they were on neutral ground, he might have met her gaze and saw the warmth and kindness in her face, a sign that her words really rang true. He flattened himself further on the ground so that his body was fully parallel with it, resting his chin between in paws on the drenched sod. "I'm no one," he whispered, the anxiety in his chest creeping up along his shoulders and back now that he suddenly fancied the idea that she might be luring him into some sort of clever trap. She might have been Klio of the Lone Wolves, but a part of him was not quite ready to trust such an affirmation. "From nowhere."

He brought his eyes to look over at the grass just beyond the tips of his nails on his left forepaw. It didn't matter now if he was soaked now, at this point he had been out in the rain since the storm had arrived a few hours ago. While he had tried to keep out of it, seeking shelter at the bases of trees or in the middle of a thicket, there was just no use in trying to stay dry. He shifted away from her, the lifting of his left foot freeing his trapped tail as it moved to extend out behind him in a repentant wag. "You're... You're different," he murmured, catching her eye just once before looking off somewhere to his right, not meaning to offend but rather complimenting her capability of compassion. A shiver wracked his lanky frame, "Do you... Do you want something? I don't- I don't have anything of value."

Now Klio really felt sorry for him. She still didn't know his name, but she did know how badly he had the "submission disease". Klio knew how it felt to be the bottom of the pole, and the good traits which began to flood her personality took hold just then, giving her encouragement to help this poor man realize he wasn't no one.

"Well, I need something to call you. If you don't have a name, I'll help you choose one." She offered in a playful tone, wagging her tail and stepping closer to him. Wondering if perhaps he offered no name because he didn't trust her enough to give one, she added slowly, "If you don't trust me, I understand. I mean, who in their right mind would trust a murderess's outcast daughter who just confronted someone she didn't know in the middle of a rain shower, right?"

Klio's voice started soft and understanding, but although she tried to be humorous, there was an icy note of hard bitterness beneath it that was painfully obvious. The yearling was ashamed of herself. Although displaying the contents of her past had seemed a solid, logical idea at first, it now occurred to her that her words rang with truth: why should he trust her?

Turning away hard in shame, she forced down a sob. Why had she done that? And why was she so emotional now? It hadn't gotten to her like this in over a month. She walked in a big circle, shivering and shaking with surpressed tears the whole way around. When she reached the male again, she flopped to the ground with an audible thump and rested her head miserably on her paws.

"I'm sorry, I don't need anything. You-, You go back, a-and get warm. Y-You're f-f-freezing," she said, raindrops rolling down her black fur as she nodded toward his shivering, "And after all, I-I should be going. I-I need s-some... t-time alone. I-I'm sorry to b-bother you."

"Well, I need something to call you" she said, the tone in her voice airy and light. "If you don't have a name, I'll help you choose one." The sides of his face twitched in a trying, failing smile. He opened his mouth to speak but two things happened at once as he did. First, nothing came out, not even a syllable or a puff of air from his lungs. Then, secondly, she extended a sentiment that let him know that she understood that he might not trust her... She was the daughter of a killer, an outcast... like him... Quite frankly, that last bit worried him a bit. He, himself, had been the son of a traitor, a turncoat, and betrayer. He was an outcast because his own father had cast him out in favor of a new family. Tannis had been exiled if only to suffer through remembering what had been done to his mother, his sisters, his brother, and being unable to speak the truth about what had happened when he accidentally witnessed his father negotiating with the Corvinus wolves, their mortal enemies.

Again, he shivered, and as much as he wanted to empathize with her, he initially hesitated, listening as she walked about in a circle. He lifted his eyes to see the side of her head as she shook it. She soon came back to him and slumped back down beside him. Now it was his turn to feel sorry, and he thought he had had it bad. Klio stated that she didn't need anything from him and that he ought to go back to the tree while she left.

"I-I'm f-fine," he whimpered. "Y-you-youuu... C-C'mon." He shakily stood up, and like how a low-ranking member might address his superior, he cautiously touched his nose to hers, "C'mon, ou-out of the rain. I... I wasn't bothered." He let out another nasally whine, "You just... startled me a little." His voice turned sheepish, finally edging away from being fearful or anxious, "I'm startled by a lot of things, so don't feel bad about that either." He took a few step back towards the pink-leafed tree, "My mother called me Tannis. My father wasn't a very good man either." Klio, it seemed to him, was a good-natured soul, but in the event that she turned a full 180 degrees, he was already mentally and physically prepared to suffer the consequences for prying or even (forcefully) offering to help her.

Stumbling to her paws, the black girl swing around shakily to follow Tannis. Having so little information about him still, she was still curious about this frightened, timid wolf. Tannis reminded him of her brother... The brother she could not save... The brother she could not save from the blood coated jaws of the fear-inspiring and merciless white queen...

Shaking off memories and pain, Klio fought to return to the present, but it was nearly as hopeless as trying to grow a lush forest with but a single, small seed. But her struggle wasn't impossible, and for the first time in forever, she managed it. With a strange sounding gurgle of pleasure, she congratulated herself, although she didn't mean to be supercilious. For her age, she was quite the precocious wolf, and knew better than to invest in such fruitless pastimes and habits.

Upon reaching the tree, she motioned that Tannis should return to where he had been, and she would dig herself a shelter in the soft mud. Finding a rock that slanted over a slight hollow and was propped up on an above ground tree root, she continued the dip and formed a decent den, although only the rear end of her fit inside of it.

Turning to Tannis, she said just loudly enough to be heard over the rain, which was beginning to let up and go toward the mountain, "Thank you,". It was directed at no event in particular, but the yearling still felt compelled to express a sudden gratitude toward the slightly older man. Crossing her paws delicately, she rested her head upon them, and allowed her eyes to settle half closed in wet but content rest.

Tannis accompanied her back to the tree with his ears still folded back and his tail tucked between his legs. She gestured to him to continue as he had been on his side of the tree. She set to work on digging a shallow hole between the roots; he, on the other hand, circled around three times before actually settling down. Just like before he rested his chin on his right wrist, propping his head up against a protruding root. For a while the sound of her digging soothed his ears, keeping his mind off of the raindrops that occasionally hit the very tip of his nose.

His head lifted up to the boughs of the tall and singular pink-leafed tree that stood over them like an umbrella. When he thought his mind was free to wander, he was brought back by a simple "Thank you." His ears momentarily perked up. He shivered and curled up into a tighter ball, pressing his long limbs against his torso. "Mm-hmm," he managed to hum in reply. Don't mention it. He kept the latter sentiment to himself, his eyes focusing on the blades of grass just beyond his muzzle.

When the silence had crept back between them, Tannis lifted his head and looked over at her resting form, cozy and comfortable in her makeshift bed. He bit back a whine. As much as he wanted to stay, he couldn't. As kindly and accommodating as might have been to the girl, he was anxious being in the woman's company. After all, he didn't know her - and, she in turn, did not know who he was, where he had come from, and why he had come here. For him to stay with her could possibly mean that she would be in danger, and he didn't want that... at least, not for someone as young as her with a whole life, full of experiences, ahead of her.

As quietly as he could, he stood up and crept away. Never to be seen or heard from again - or so he'd like to think...