The Wildwood Under a southern sun

takes place the same day as 'feast fit for kings' and is set just beyond the main gathering area, @Mordacai, Koda or Enoki may join, anyone else and Io will just get up and leave

The sun that had greeted her this morning was still bright and intense. The pale tawny and gray wolf lifted her head, eyes lidded, to the rays to feel the warmth on her face. She was laying on a blown-over mat of dry grass. Such warmth this late into fall was rare and Iopah soaked in it like a sun-bathing turtle. The only thing better would have been a wide granite stone set on a mountain peak. But those days were in her past. The Black Hills were a thing of memory. She'd never see or feel the southern sun again.

There were a great many wolves here. Some she felt a common spark with, their thought-process so similar as to be unnerving. Others she had just puzzled over. She shifted, kicking her legs out from under her with a contented grumble and felt the heat against her side. Hours ago she'd eaten her fill and come here to laze and digest. The multitude of new faces had gotten to be overwhelming. She was used to the few trusted faces from home and had seized upon the excuse to step away. The bison meat had long since been broken down.

Yet she remained. She was mildly anti-social. Loyal, yet reserved around most. Able to accept new faces and situations in her laconic way, but unsure how to initiation a converse with a stranger. Just walk right up and say her name? What if she didn't care about what they wanted to talk about? Nah, it was much better to just stay here and appreciate the sun.

Mordacai had quickly grown tired of the festivities celebrating the alliance of Willow Ridge and the two other packs. He had only recently joined the Ridge and was having a hard enough time with the dynamics between him and his pack mates, not to mention his relationship with his sister. Having to meet more new wolves was tiresome, and though Cai did not have a particular problem with anyone there today, with the exception of @Renier who seemed to have captured @Morganna's attention, the swarthy male wanted some space from the cluster of new faces. The fact that his sister had been apart of the party that had taken down the bison left Cai unwilling to eat any of it, though it was his favorite food, and this added a pinch of surliness to the prince's tired mood.

Tired and grumpy the Ashrelle prince made his way to the outskirts of the gathered wolves and there he found a familiar face, one of the few wolves whose company he wouldn't mind at the moment. In fact, now that he thought about it, he still had some questions for the woman, if she was willing to provide answers. Adorning a modest smile and friendly glint in his amber eyes, Mordacai trotted over to the light colored female who seemed to be bathing in the morning sun. As he approached her he again noted how pretty her eyes were, especially when the pale gold color glinted in the sunlight. "Hello Miss..." Cai recalled the memory of their meeting over the bison carcass and his heart had a sudden twinge of remorse knowing that he wouldn't be having bison today. "Iopah, right?" Mordacai gave the woman a moment to confirm that he had gotten her name right before politely asking, "Do you mind if I join you?"

@Mordacai

She was nearly dozing now, lulled into a sense of tranquility despite the distance from home. The fellow Woodlands wolves that had made the journey with her were safe. No harm would come to any of them here. With a full belly and no need to be on her guard it was no wonder she'd relaxed so easily. There was no way to know what was happening at home. As a rule, she didn't like theoretical questions. What if it was exactly as she left it, down to the half-shredded rabbit Silentium had left at her den? Or, what if the Black Thorn wolves had stormed the borders and taken up residence? With her past, such questions would drive her to insanity. They would deal with anything when they got back.

She was so close to sleep that the gentle crunch of dry grass elicited only a single ear flick. Someone was coming. Her body stretched slightly and opened her eyes to the sight of a dark wolf approaching. She blinked up sleepily, lids fluttering over clear gold, and listened to him speak. She did remember him, and as he came up with her name she knew from where. Oh yes, from that bison carcass weeks ago. He was related to Enoki and as a result was related to Kele. That realization was enough to rouse her fully and she pushed herself up into a sphinx pose. Of course, she nodded to his question. Now, that she was awake she remembered how their last conversation had ended. This was the continuation that had waited for a more discreet setting. "You and your sister both have Kele's eyes", she commented quietly, looking away from his gaze.

(This post was last modified: Nov 28, 2014, 03:43 PM by Iopah.)

@Iopah

Mordacai watched as the pale woman slowly awoke from her sleep and sat up in a sphinx position. When she nodded in acceptance to his request to join, he sat in a similar position an appropriate distance away, but close enough to keep their conversation private and intimate. Cai had been raised as a prince and knew that it was rude to look another wolf directly in their eyes, but he was having a hard time tearing his gaze away from her sunshine orbs. As she commented on his eyes Cai smiled. Part of him was happy that she was looking into his eyes as much as he was looking into hers. But another part of him was saddened at the mention of his lost kin. "I never knew him." Cai said solemnly. He was not angry at Iopah and her family despite the horror stories that he had been told as a pup. If coming to the Lore had taught Mordacai anything it was that wolves weren't always who they appeared to be. Some wolves lied, some pretended, and some just had another side that they kept tightly locked away. Whatever the case with her family, Cai was not going to judge her for stories that he had heard. They were in a different land now, a different time. In this land and time, they were allies.

"I always wondered what it would have been like to have another brother..." Cai said sadly. Sad because he had not had the chance to grow up with Kele and sad because he could tell by Iopah's behavior that he would never have a chance to get to know his lost brother. Cai knew that he was gone now. But the Ashrelle prince knew that he could not miss a brother he never knew as much as Iopah must miss a man she grew up with, perhaps a man she loved. "Was he..." Cai searched for a word, but didn't know what to ask. Was he kind? Was he strong? Was he a good leader? As he struggled to find the words, he decided it would be easier to let Iopah tell this story in her own words. "What was he like?" Cai finally asked, looking up at the pale woman with the sun in her eyes, a sad smile adorning his dark muzzle.

She was not expecting him to be upset. Clearly he held nothing against her, otherwise he wouldn't have waited till now. Probably Enoki had told him of how she was a mess when the piebald woman had finally caught up to the Woodland huntress. But she still blinked at the softness of his reply. She felt bad for how Kele had ended up and likely always would. He'd saved her and she'd let him die. She was immensely glad that she was getting along with his kin. The whole point of Kele's displacement was to make the two pack allies. Iopah would make sure they stayed, at least, allies.

Her ears flicked at his statement, genuinely surprised that he had yet more family still around. Iopah was the only Barberi left and she was happy to hear the Ashrelle family had fared better. It was an ironic twist of fate that Iopah could only wonder at. Like his sister, Mordacai was curious and Iopah let her gaze wander in the direction of a distant laugh.

What was he like? Iopah took a second to collect her memories, carefully discarding the sad ones and peering in close to the rest. "He tried very hard to fit in, I remember him asking me over and over everyone's names." She closed her eyes to bask in the sun and her memory of the boy that she'd cared for. On the Black Hills there had been no to time to speak of love and the future for them, and their last days together had been stuck in the strange time between child and adult. "He was fascinated with our stories, even if I wasn't overly impressed with them."

(This post was last modified: Nov 28, 2014, 03:45 PM by Iopah.)

Cai smiled as he watched Iopah bask in the sun and the memories of the brother he never knew. Perhaps, Cai could be okay with never knowing his brother knowing that Kele had managed to bring her so much happiness. "Our own stories are usually the most boring to us. It's learning about someone else's story that's exciting." Cai commented in understanding. He had never taken much interest in his own pack history, either, though he found himself wishing he had paid more attention to what his parents and said about the Barberi family. Then again, whatever they said would probably have been twisted around into some ugly half truth. Why yearn for those corrupted stories when he had the source right here?

"I'm glad he had a home." Mordacai let a silence settle over them so that those words could sink in. Kele may not have had the home he was born into, but he had a home nonetheless and it seemed like it had been a good one. "So what were they like? Your stories, I mean. I'd like to see if I can understand what he found so fascinating about them." Cai smiled encouragingly, hoping that the pale woman would not mind sharing her history. Iopah, her family, their stories--these were the only links Mordacai had to the brother that might have been the brother he always wanted, a better version of Arion. Cai had never paid much attention to the stories about Kele because they were only stories, but now there was something that made them real. Or rather, someone. And Cai wasn't completely sure that it was just Kele that he wanted to know more about.

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

She nodded emphatically at his comment. The Barberi pack had been very proud of their longevity on the Black Hills. The stories were just as tedious now as they were then, and now with the knowledge that they were gone, the tales were intensely depressing. What they had held so dear was nothing, the sole survivor of a proud line was nothing more than a pale, nondescript subordinate wolf in the wilds of Canada.

Her eyes rolled at his question. "The story goes that the Barberi wolves lived on the same stretch of land for decades." Personally that had always seemed far-fetched to her. Once she had asked her father, who replied that it must be true considering his father (and Iopah's grandfather) would never lie. "Many of the tales recounted times that we kept that land despite amazing odds." She snorted and flicked her eyes away away in long-borne defiance for her family. If they had moved away from their precious land Kele would have lived and they would have more to their name than a daughter who grudgingly accepted the relation.

And yet, there was one among them she remembered. The moral of the story was one she thought of often, even if she couldn't remember the words to it. "My mother told a story of a scout once," She started, trying to recall how she had sat and the inflections in her voice. It was a story her mother had been fond of also, ironically the fondness had been passed to her daughter. "He lived years before her birth, and was a loyal member, having been taken in a starving yearling. There was a fight one day, an enemy had attacked a child on a cliff over a river. The scout fought bravely and saved the child but was thrown from the cliff in the process. The whole pack rushed into the waters to pull him out. He was still and breathless and they feared it was too late. They sang the death-song, at it's end he coughed and took a breath."

Memory caught up with her and she remembered loudly voicing her opinion that it was impossible. Kele had rapidly shushed her, his amber eyes fixed on Iopah's mother. "The scout told everyone that while he lay there he'd seen a pack. A ghost pack, made up of every deceased Barberi wolf, was waiting for him. They said they always watched and waited, but it was not his time yet. A pup that had eaten a toxic mushroom only weeks ago touched his chest and he coughed all the river water out."

When the story ended Iopah was looking at the creek in the distance. It was an amazing story and it wasn't until she had started dreaming of her parents waiting for her that she believed it. "I think it's true."

now you have the record for most word spoken from her!

Mordacai kept his amber gaze trained on Iopah's expressive, cream colored face as she opened up about her past. Cai frowned as he picked up on the disdain she had for her family. Certainly if anyone could understand the frustrations that family could cause, it was the younger Ashrelle prince, but he was sure that his feelings were nothing compared to hers. Cai's frustrations were born of a desire to be acknowledged which was never fulfilled. Iopah's were born from the loss of a loved one. His exponentially failed in comparison to hers. Cai was relieved to see the grey and tawny woman take on a more pleasant expression as she recalled a childhood story that she was clearly more fond of. The story did not seem pleasant at first, but once Iopah reached the part about the death-song Cai's interest was piqued. He was even more interested in the fact that the song had worked and that the scout reported having seen those on the other side. As Iopah stared off into the distance and claimed that she did believe there to be truth in the story, Mordacai put the pieces together. Kele was not the only one she had lost. Cai yearned to have her gold orbs brought back to him, but he allowed her a few moments to keep them fixated on the creek in the distance, and thus, to Cai's disappointment, obscured from his view.

Cai risked gently nudging her shoulder with his muzzle, a gesture that wouldn't be uncommon among friends, though he wasn't sure that was how he had intended it. The contact was brief, just enough to convey his sincerity when he said, "I believe it." The thought of seeing one's loved ones after death was the most comforting thought to be shared among the living and Cai had spent some nights of his own imagining reunion with his parents one day in the, hopefully far, future. Deciding to lighten the mood, Cai commented, "You'll have to teach me this Barberi death-song of yours one day. It certainly sounds like it could be useful." His deep, but raspy voice was rich with good humor and he even spared Iopah a devilish grin that he hadn't used in years. His mood certainly had changed for the better and Cai was glad that he made time to talk with Iopah.

@Mordacai

Despite her distant mannerisms, Iopah was a tactile wolf at heart. It was an intrinsic part of wolf behavior, so. touch and non-verbal communication was natural to her. She trusted Mordacai, and so when he brushed against her shoulder she thought nothing deeper of the gesture. He believed her and her stance shifted towards him. She'd been expecting him to ask for some kind of supporting proof, but he was just like his older brother.

He said he believed it and she cocked her head, wondering as she had for years if the group of wolves that waited for you had to be blood-relatives. Who would Kele be waiting for, her or his biological family? She'd seen him in those dreams, but they might simply be that: dreams. She sighed wistfully and turned her attention back to the stream idly. It reminded her of the little cold-water spring back home and the soft noise of churning water was comforting. Iopah was not expecting him to ask about the song and when he did she turned to him in amusement. The grays over her shoulders shivered as she laughed heartily. "I'm afraid I don't remember how the song goes."

"So what about the rest of Kele's family." She prompted, glancing over at him carefully with her eyes turned down in respect. "I could never get him to talk about his family." Not that the pale woman could blame him, but these past few weeks had made her realize that his family had never stopped caring for him.