Nightingale Palisade The weight of a stone

other SW wolves are welcome. any 'lost' wolves are welcome to drop in!

Mid-morning
Light sleet
32 ° F, 0 ° C

Iopah glanced back once as the small group of wolves left the safety of the thicket. Pale legs did not slow in their steady lope, but her head craned over a gray-edged shoulder. They were there, already waiting for them to return. Hopefully, with good news. The fine sleet was quick to refocus her attention. It bounced harmlessly off her thick winter coat, but needled her upturned face. Iopah turned around, letting her gaze sweep over those travelling with her. Silentium was nearby and the woman watched him mutely, wondering at the wisdom of letting of letting the boy search for his long-lost brother. But he wanted to come and she lacked the heart to refuse him.

Koda lead the rag-tag group of wolves as they wound through the fields and then went north. Iopah could hear the sound of ice shattering. The days might have been warm enough for the snow to melt, but each night it froze into a solid sheet. Crack. They needed his strength and weight to break their trail, and she had to content herself with squinting against the sleet at him. She knew him well enough to picture the heavy muscle of his chest, imagine the feel of his breath on her side. Suddenly and despite the stinging sleet, her winter coat was much too heavy. It felt less like winter under the weight. Hackles rose unseen as she fought the feeling back.

She opened her mouth to the icy air, felt it bellow in her lungs, and hoped it would smother the rising warmth. It helped and the woman followed her packmates into the wide, snowy valley of a ravine. After having promised Nina to stay together and to be cautious of the Black Thorn wolves, this trip certainly deserved her attention. Silentium in the corner of one eye, the huntress dropped her muzzle to sniff a low-growing, sheltering shrub. Nothing, at least nothing she cared to find. Patiently, she turned to wait for her companions.

(This post was last modified: Aug 12, 2015, 03:44 AM by Iopah.)

Iopah had been hesitant to let him come, Silentium knew that by the expression on her face when he had shown up to leave with them. It didn't matter, Pacem has been missing for much too long and he needed to do something about it. The boy had known he would have to cross the border which he feared to the center of his being , but he knew that with Iopah and Koda both there nothing ill would fall on him. So when the woman had hesitated about letting him join the blonde boy had insisted, determination clear in his eyes that he would be coming one way or another.

So far they had found nothing and Silentium was beginning to feel discouraged, though his maw remained unchanged he wished he was back within the borders. They were much farther from home than he had ever been and as they searched the ravine for clues he felt sense of dread seeping through his bones.  Coming up beside the pale woman he said nothing, just watched the way their breath turned to fog before being swept away on the wind. There was no way his brother could have survive here, the walls were too steep and slick, the vegetation too bare. Frowning deeply he bowed his head, acting as if he were investigating the bush before them to hide the emotion. Digging a shallow pit with one of his front paws he murmured, "Should we go back?" The green eyes refused to lift from where they focused at the icy snow beneath his paws, he was ashamed of wanting to return but his gut was begging for him to flee.

 

I was going to have her find a bit of black wolf hair (from when Noble fell into the ravine), I don't imagine it'll hold any scent, but they can make any assumptions they want

Her hopes were sinking the farther they went and the more she saw of the place. The snow was deep, and Iopah knew that under the drifts there was likely nothing but the stream bed that formed the ravine. This late in winter it would be frozen solid and offer no sustenance to either wolf or prey. The slopes were hardly better. Stubborn shrubs clung to them, battered and frail after a long winter exposed to the elements. They wouldn't even serve as windbreaks. Those heights would be a treacherous fall and an impossible climb. There was less than little here, there was nothing here. It felt glaringly obvious to the long-experienced hunter; she frequently glanced at the two boys, wondering if they would notice the same. It was a terrible secret to bear alone, but she wanted to discuss it even less.

Pale legs carried her forward a few yards. She watched @Silentium from the corner of a gold eye as those yards grew into space between them. Something was upsetting him and she could only guess at what. He was old enough that she wouldn't coddle as she once had. It was the way it worked. Silentium had lost the indulgence of youth but gained the respect of age; they would approach each other as adults now. Still, she watched him as attention turned to the slope. It seemed the only place a scent might be held, perhaps in the crevice of a rock higher up?

Iopah turned with a quiet hmm? at the sound of Silentium's voice. She stared for a moment as she took in his question, then another as she processed it, eyes flicking to Koda when the implication set in. Exasperation warred with sympathy, but her ears pinned with determination. Quietly, softly, she went back to him, hearing the sound of her limbs sweeping through icy snow. She waited until his head rose from the brush, blinking patiently against the driving sleet as he took the time he needed.

"We can't yet." A sad sigh rose over the weather. Her stance fell with the weigh of what they had to do. She leaned back, hoping for the solid reassurance of @Koda. "It's hard, but we have to learn all we can. We've gotta find where they went."

Her lips quirked in a desperate attempt at light-heartedness, trying to give him some hope. "You three are tougher than you think."

A lynx has left behind the remains of a deer. +5 Health

 

Through his good ear Si heard the approach of the woman and saw her feet move into his frame of vision until she stopped before him. The boy held his position, head down and eyes focused on the ice waiting for her to answer his barely concealed plea. He was ashamed of his weakness for wanting to return to the safety of his home, but more afraid of what they would find if they kept looking here. The answer never came though, not until his emerald eyes flicked upwards to see if perhaps he had missed her words while he had been preoccupied with his own thoughts as sometimes happened to him.

He hadn't. Iopah's answer had been both expected and dreaded, Aideen might have been able to survive in this ravine but his brother certainly couldn't have, especially if they weren't together. He hadn't known the woman well, only seeing her around as he had most of the pack mates but never having an actual conversation. Deep down he was kind of happy that she had gone missing in the same storm as Pacem, it meant that his brother might not be alone, it meant that his brother might be alive.

Silentium walked past the fawny woman before him without a word, his green eyes once more sweeping the ravine in search of something that he missed. Instead he was met once more with the stark declaration that it made; this place was deadly. Under his breath the boy muttered, "Not tough enough to survive this."

 

alrighty, Noble is the same age/color as Pacem. She would have been injured going down, but not sure there would be blood after 2 months?

The hope sank like a ship. Iopah watched @Silentium move ahead and felt herself slump. It would have been easy to lie and he might even have believed her, but.... The blonde boy forged ahead into the desolate landscape and the pale wolf sighed. She would have hated to have someone lie to her, the reality would suck no matter how it was worded. She'd rather have a terrible truth than a wonderful lie. That didn't really make this easier, but it was all she could think of as he walked forward and away from her. There was nothing she could do to help him. Despite how much she wanted to go to him, Iopah just watched him. Her pale paws scuffed through white snow and she remembered searching for a brother as well. She had nothing to say that might give him any hope. He would have to find resolve all on his own. Her gold eyes stayed on @Koda for a long moment, making sure he was safe and close-by, before she pushed off with her hind legs and continued the search.

Both males already weighed more than she did. Iopah was the only one capable of scaling the sides to investigate the sparse shrubbery there. She took careful steps, feeling her feet sink into the snow and hoping it would be enough to anchor her against a fall. There was nothing everywhere she checked. Over and over, she told herself it was good news. The only reason for there to be a wolf-scent this high was if that wolf had fallen down the sides and into the ravine.

Every barren brush made her heart lighter and Iopah was ready to finally venture down when she caught sight of the black tuft of hair. It was spinning in the breeze, snagged on a rough twig. Something had fallen down the slope. She froze staring at it, going through all the possibilities. Bears and skunks were all hibernating and a moose would have left more than that. Crap. Delicately, she reached out and broke the branch off in her teeth. Focused on the branch now, it took longer to climb down than up: she didn't want to drag it through the snow. Finally she reached the bottom of the ravine again and dropped it before stepping back to let the males inspect it.

Feel free to have Iopah chase him or just wait for him to return on his own!

 

The boy had been staring directly ahead of him, completely unaware that the woman had begun to scale the ravine. Her footsteps had been so cautiously placed in the snow that they had been hushed rather than echoed and Silentium had missed any whisper of a sound. That is until the sound of a branch snapping sounded like a gunshot as it bounced off the steep walls and back to them. Whipping around the Hervok pup's hackles flung up along his shoulders and back, sure that there would be some kind of danger behind him. When he was met with nothing other than Koda he immediately searched out Iopah's form to assure himself that she too was alright. What his eyes focused on though was not the woman herself but the branch in her mouth and more importantly the dark tuft of fur wedged within it.

Silentium took a step back, and continued taking steps farther back as she continued down the hill, his instinct to put distant between himself and the scrap of what was left of his brother. The blonde legs quaked beneath him and his stomach clenched and churned dangerously, it seemed as if the whole world spun around him. Everything except the fur which stayed in clear focus, it was like he had entered and tunnel and the only clear thing was that Pacem was dead. Without warning Silentium couldn't contain himself anymore and tears began to fall from his eyes, crashing into the ice and snow beneath his paws. He didn't spare even a single thought as his feet began to move on their own accord, turning him and carrying him deeper down the ravine at a sprint. If Iopah and Koda were calling for him he couldn't hear, all he knew was that he needed to get as far away from his brother's body which he was sure was buried in the snow as possible.

 

-sad face- nuthin like 6 month old feels... one more post from each of us (@Koda and @Silentium) so we can finish this ancient thread?

The delicate thing fluttered in her jaws and Iopah had to simply let Silentium race along the ravine. She couldn't move, the tuft was even more fragile than the life it had belonged to. If she followed Silentium, she might loose it to the snowy drifts or the wind. They had come out here to learn what they could and this was their one chance. The fur twisted just inches in front of her nose as Iopah stood motionless and looked past it to watch Silentium's fleeing form.

She waited till he was out of sight, wincing as the wind pulled and tugged at the precious cargo. Once he was gone -and it was just her and Koda- the woman slumped. This was not something she could be impassive over. This might be a wolf that had been gravely injured by its fall into the ravine. This might be @Pacem. Slowly, carefully she knelt to place the branch on the snow and did not rise. With Silentium, she felt obligated to shield him from the brunt of her worries, she had seen things far worse than the pup was imaging now. She couldn't with Koda, he already knew all the horrible events were that were replaying in her mind. Right now (with @Aideen lost) he was the only one she didn't have to shield herself with. The branch rocked in the breeze as she said nothing. A part of her didn't even want to catch the scent of what ever wolf this was. Would it be easier to know something bad had happened or worse to never learn of Pacems fate?

Finally she lurched forward, clumsy with indecision, to take in whatever scent was left. The fine delicate hairs ticked her nose and she could smell just the faintest whiff of wolf, but only the faintest whiff of wolf. Iopah backed away so her companion could do the same. "Now what'll we do?" She asked@ "Koda" in a low voice. Everything seemed too daunting right now. They had traveled all this way, broken Silentium's heart and had nothing to show for it. Should they keep going or turn back? And what about the coming weeks? This ravine was the last place Iopah held hope for. Even she didn't know where to search any longer.