Blackberry Fields An Entrance One Might Say

Abeke had been traveling for months. Through forests and fields she had journeyed and never once since leaving her pack had she come across another wolf. Her body was lean from lack of food and her eyes now had a empty look to them, as if she had been lost for a long time. Perhaps it was because of the lack of socializing. Her normally thick, sleek coat was now limp. Abeke was in desperate need of a pack.

Abeke looked at her surroundings and noticed that something was different from other places she had wandered. Besides being lush and beautiful, the blackberry field she was now in showed signs of habitation. The indications were not large but it was in the gently worn down grass and occasional paw print that Abeke noticed other wolves had been here. By the looks of it wolves had been here recently and Abeke prayed that another wolf would stumble upon her soon. For the time being though, she was content to wander over to a blackberry bush and eat. It had been almost a week since she had last eaten and the fruit was pure heaven to her. Without noticing it she let out a gentle sigh.

After she had had her fill, Abeke wandered over to a sunny patch of flat grass and laid down. Normally she would never be so lax in her alertness, but she was tired and for the first time in weeks her belly was full. Shifting around until she was comfortable Abeke soon drifted off to the shores of slumber. Deep in sleep Abeke would stay there for hours, or at least until another being woke her.

(This post was last modified: Aug 21, 2014, 05:34 AM by Abeke.)

Laurel found herself in the Blackberry fields again- she looked around, trying to see if she could spot Atlas. She couldn't- a disappointing discovery; she had wanted to talk to him again, tell him that his advice worked and that she was relatively happy at the falls. As it was, she couldn't but the opportunity to find something to eat wasn't wasted. Laurel was fortunate enough to catch a hare. She almost ate it on the spot, but something stopped her- a hunch, the dark female supposed. So she looked around for a place to eat lunch.

I guess the grass is too tall to properly enjoy something...Laurel tried to reason. Truth was, her hunch didn't make much sense at all- though her father always said that hunches were when the Creator plucked on the strings that intertwine fates. She felt it was more of a pulling. So she wandered, padding through semi-familiar territory. I wonder if Kato's been here yet? It was a pretty location. And it had deer- she would have to grab a few friends before she tried anything though.

Laurel kept on wandering through the grass until she tripped. Startled, she tried to catch herself, for in her thinking she didn't notice the sleeping wolf in front of her. Draped awkwardly over the smaller wolf, she lost hold of the rabbit and scrabbled to get off in order to give a due apology- "Ah! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to trip- you see, there was this rabbit..." as she rambled on about hunches and strings, Laurel inwardly panicked. I sure hope I didn't trip over a pack wolf- or worse yet, their leader!

(This post was last modified: Aug 21, 2014, 04:07 AM by Laurel.)

Abeke was dead to the world when suddenly she felt a weight fall upon her, scrabble around and move off. Shocked and now fully awake Abeke lifted her head and leapt to her feet. Standing in front of her looking mortified was large she wolf with a dark grey pelt. Abeke was immediately alert. While this foreign wolf didn't exactly look hostile, Abeke didn't want to take any chances. This wolf was much larger than her so if it came down to a fight, Abeke would need to run so she tensed up her muscles just in case.

Abeke was startled out of her thoughts by the grey wolf speaking. "Ah! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to trip- you see, there was this rabbit..." she rambled, telling about hunches and strings and fate. Soon Abeke stopped paying attention to her words focusing only on the rabbit in her mouth. Finally Abeke had had enough of this wolf's talking so quickly she swished her tail. "It's fine, though not the nicest way about being woken up from a comforting slumber," she said with a small snort. "To be honest it's a bit of a relief to see another wolf after such long solitude. You see, you are the first wolf I have seen and months and that rabbit you are holding-and distinctly not offering to share-is the first rabbit I have seen in weeks. Abeke paused for a moment and then added "Oh and I'm Abeke. You are?"

Stop! Stop rambling! Laurel screamed at herself. Fortunately, the other wolf had enough sense to interrupt Laurel with words of her own, thereby allowing the Boughinn female to quiet down and listen. She felt terrible for tripping over her in the first place, and the guilt was increased when Abeke mentioned that her hare was the first one the other wolf had seen in weeks.

"Oh! Well, I'm glad I could be a relief! You can have the hare, if- if you want it." Laurel begged her stomach not to make any noise as she pushed the dead creature forward. We can catch something else to eat later! I promise! "I'm Laurel, and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance."

After she had calmed down a bit, partly due the normalcy of introductions, the gears in Laurel's head began to turn. If this is the first rabbit she's seen in weeks, then that probably means that she isn't a pack wolf. So I'm not in terrible trouble. With this realization, Laurel became visibly relaxed, though her ears were still slightly facing her back. But I wish I had paid more attention to where I was going! Arg!

Here was yet another time where Laurel wished for the grace of her sister Marigold - who would most undoubtedly have sidestepped Abeke with her eyes closed and her paws barely touching the ground. And even if she didn't, no doubt her elder sibling would have delicately apologized with a musical tone sweet to the ear, while Laurel just trundled around like an intoxicated moose.

Abeke had been a bit harsh to this new wolf after being awoken so abruptly. She didn't really give much thought to it though because, what did she care what this new wolf thought of her? It was then that she noticed the female was speaking again. "Oh! Well, I'm glad I could be a relief! You can have the hare, if-if you want it." she said pushing the creature towards Abeke. Abeke looked at the hare then back at the wolf again. The wolf was obviously reluctant to give away her prey so Abeke made a quick decision that was distinctly out of the ordinary for her. Before the could say anything though the new wolf added "I'm Laurel and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance."

Abeke nodded in acknowledgement. "Here," she said "we can split the hare. You don't exactly look completely full yourself." Quietly she ripped the animal in two and pushed half towards Laurel. It was not lost on Abeke that Laurel had visibly relaxed after she had learned that Abeke hadn't seen a hare in weeks and that she was getting half of the meal. This irked Abeke. Why did others always pity her and let down their guard after learning that she was a young underfed female? She forced herself to calm down though, it was better to have friends than enemies in a new land.

"So," Abeke started with a slight, joking smile. "what brought you over to my simple resting place and what on earth compelled you to oh-so-gracefully meander over the top of me?"

"Thank you," Laurel said, quietly accepting the share pushed back to her. Her face must have betrayed her hunger this time and she felt sore for it- how rude to offer something with a face that clearly doesn't agree. But it was also rude to not accept something so obviously given- along with the fact that it was her rabbit.

She sat to eat and answer Abeke's question, smiling abashedly at her joking tone- "Well, there's a wolf I know around here somewhere-" she looked over the vast expanse of grasses for Atlas again, then turned her attentions back to Abeke. "And I was going to ask him a question. There's a strange power south of where I live and I wanted to see if he knew anything." Her maw opened to take a bite of the hare, but she stopped to realize something. "I suppose he's too young to know, but I might've asked him what family has been here the longest and start from there..."

Before her mind wandered into the specifics of how she was going to get the attentions of this family without being a pack wolf, Laurel roped it back in and told it firmly to stay put. "What about you?" She asked, curious- "What are you doing here? I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to-" Laurel thought of her own reason for entering the Lore and regretted asking a question that could dredge up terrible memories. "Just curious." The half-rabbit found itself the victim of guilty fangs.

Laurel's face betrayed her hunger and relief as she took half of the plump hare. Inwardly Abeke laughed. Perhaps this wolf had too spent time alone and hungry and come to appreciate every meal as Abeke had. Abeke dipped her head down and took a small bite from her share of rabbit and relished in it's meaty taste. As she was eating Laurel was answering her question about what she was doing here. Laurel was going on about a wolf she knew and powers in the South before she realized how much she was saying. Wryly Abeke thought "Well she certainly isn't afraid to show what she really thinks. I wonder if she's just a natural flibbertigibbet." Before Abeke could continue on this train of thought Laurel was speaking again. "What are you doing here? I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to-" Laurel's face briefly held a pained expression. "Just curious."

Despite the numerous differences between the two wolves Abeke could feel herself warming up to Laurel. Perhaps it was her awkward demeanor or entirely too optimistic attitude, but Abeke was quiet sure that the two of them could end up being friends. So with this in mind Abeke decided to truthfully answer Laurel. "Well, I used to be the daughter of a Beta in my old pack, but I had-have I suppose-three older brothers so there was no chance of me becoming the next Beta. As you can see I am not a big wolf and I was the runt of my litter which, let me tell you, does not work out in your favor when you're part of a cruel and corrupt pack. So when I was about a year old I decided that I'd had enough so I left. I traveled for a few months then I ended up here. Oh and by the way, where exactly is "here"?"

".....I don't know-" Laurel admitted. "I mean, I've always called this place Blackberry Fields in my head, but besides Atlas, I haven't talked to any wolf who lives here...and our conversation didn't last long enough for me to ask him." She wondered what the falls that she lived near were called, and the strange grove south of her. Did the local wolves name them as well? What about the mountain? Did that have a name too? Laurel added these questions to her checklist of things to do as she took another bite of the rabbit.

Her mind then wandered over to what came before Abeke's question. She seems so nonchalant about it... If her family members- those who are closest to you- were cruel and corrupt, Laurel would have broke. She wasn't a wolf who could handle that sort of betrayal. The Boughinn fought to keep a sorry that would sound false in her jaws. Instead she wondered aloud. "My parents taught us that it's not about size- it's about heart and what your willing to do. Evergreen is smaller than Fir, and that didn't stop him from claiming the position of crown prince. But I suppose if everyone is out for themselves, it makes it harder." A sigh escaped and laid to rest on her meal. "I guess I was a lucky runt to have kind siblings."

Though, if she really thought about it, none of her siblings really showed that they even considered that Laurel could amount to much- Snapdragon and Oak always dismissed the notion that she could help with the jobs assigned to them. Then again, she never much tried, but it made her a little disappointed that her family had apparently just liked to coddle her.

(This post was last modified: Aug 22, 2014, 02:23 AM by Laurel.)

"So this wolf is also new here," Abeke thought. "Well I won't be getting any information from here." In front of her, Laurel was lost in thought, though what she was thinking about Abeke could not tell. Abeke continued eating her rabbit in companionable silence with Laurel. She-more than anyone-knew what it was like to be lost in thought and wanting to just be alone. So Abeke simply let her, knowing that she would talk when she was ready. Abeke was prepared to wait. She had just finished her rabbit when Laurel spoke again, seeming to voice her thoughts. "My parents taught us that it's not about size- it's about heart and what your willing to do. Evergreen is smaller than Fir, and that didn't stop him from claiming the position of crown prince. But I suppose if everyone is out for themselves, it makes it harder." A sigh escaped and laid to rest on her meal. "I guess I was a lucky runt to have kind siblings."

At this Abeke snorted softly. It sounded like Laurel had been graced with a loving, pampered childhood with kind parents. Abeke distantly wondered what on earth would make her leave, unless she was power hungry and was uncontent being last in line. But to Abeke Laurel did not seem like the power searching type at all. More like the gentle behind the scenes worker. With that little speech, Laurel was quiet again and the two wolves were once again enveloped by silence.

Laurel heard the soft snort, but chose to ignore it in favor of digging in to the rabbit once again. When it was picked clean of meat, her grey eyes gravitated towards Abeke. "Even if your family is corrupt, or-" a frown made way onto her face, "has wolves that do wrong, surely there must be at least one pack mate that was kind to you... someone that you care for."

Surely she couldn't have lived, thrived, without a bit of kindness shown to her. That's what a pack is for, right? Laurel thought back to her very first lessons about packs and families- wolves that come together to benefit from community and channel that energy back into raising pups to be reasonable and responsible leaders. And that required a bit of kindness from everybody, didn't it? A pack couldn't work without that cycle of give and take.

Or perhaps her family was just weird- she scrunched up her nose to think that, in the future, Kato's pack might turn out to be less than admirable at it's core. No! she declared inwardly. I won't let that happen! Never! If her decisions now affected her decisions later, Laurel was determined to cherry-pick the right choices that would have a lasting effect. She had to- never in life would the dark wolf want her legacy to disintegrate into corruption- the kind of corruption that lead a wolf to take advantage of a yearling's nativity.

Her eyes focused once more on Abeke. "If you find a pack and rise through it ranks, how will you be different than your kin?"