Riddle Heights elation

@Tannis

Wren was pleased with himself as he silently wobbled his way out of the den that his mother had kept them all contained in. She seemed almost worried which puzzled the young boy who was only beginning to experience the world. He wanted to know more than the walls that surrounded him and his family whom surrounded him. He wanted adventure, danger, and he wanted it all as soon as he could have it. This was what led him to sneak out of the den, though unknown to him, his mother knew that he had gone out. The sun beat down on his back as he felt its warmth and he looked at the mountain that he stood on. It was fascinating to see what the world was made of.

The mischievous had much to learn as he dared to move farther away from the den and his family. He did not know of the tension between the Argyris Clan, whom made up most of the pack, and the Destine Carvello family. He did not care to know either. All he knew was he was a child and he wanted to explore the place he called home. He looked in awe as he examined every little stick and footprint. "I woander what dis is." He spoke to himself as he poked his nose at a strange grain-like plant that has a weird smell to it (ergot). This made him extremely curious as he delved deeper into the plant with the unknown name.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.

Apologies in advance for this half-crazed, creep-tastic Tannis. x_x;

Like a wraith, Tannis haunted the crags and reaches of Riddle Heights. Despite the warmer weather bringing game, both large and small, into abundance, the tawny brute was still as gaunt and lean as ever. If he had had fat stores on his body before, where he had once had curves were nearly gone... angled... his face haggard and pallid. Standing atop a rock shelf somewhere not far from the den he had discovered only recently by pure, dumb luck, he stared at the horizon, unseeing and distant. No one had appointed him to be there there or assigned him the task of keeping an eye on the most dominant female of the Plateau; quite simply, Tannis just happened to be there at the right place at the right time (and this would soon be confirmed in a matter a minutes).

The mountain winds whisked past his face and he visibly shook. I'm not here, he told himself. I don't exist. No one knows. No one listens...

A ragged breath escaped past his lips when he saw it, a russet-hued shape against the cool gray stones. A creature too small to be neither wolf nor prey. His glossy eyes focused on the little thing, fixated even more as it stopped to crane its neck over and inspect a sparse bit of grass. Strange... was that... was that a cub? His nostrils flared and he slowly began his descent from his perch, growing certain with every step that this den in particular was not Phineas' but the woman whose name and scent he had only ever heard and recognized in passing. Aesire. The woman who was his superior's equal.

Like a serpent his movements slithered down the rock face before his paws failed to find purchase and he slid a good ways down the mountainside. He landed with a faint thud and a hiss that sounded through his teeth. His nose and throat burned as the whole of his left side throbbed in pain for a short moment. Tears welled up in his eyes and slid down his jawline. I'm not here, he repeated, waiting for only a number of seconds until he no longer felt the sting in his bones and muscles. I am a ghost. I do not feel.... this doesn't hurt.

Tannis pushed himself back onto all four of his paws and when he lurched forward, he continued until he saw for himself that the small animal he had seen was actually a boy. Again his nose twitched, the whiskers on either side of his muzzle vibrating with intense curiosity. His wide eyes scrutinized the lad and, though his mouth had cracked open to say something, nothing met the youth's ears in welcome. His breath left his lungs. The cub did not smell like Phineas, but like the pack's second-in-command Ace, and all of a sudden, everything about the Andreas was engrossed, enthralled, enchanted by it. It was as though he had been physically grounded to the earth in that very spot, several yards away from the youth... as if his mortal body had called to him so that he could finally be struck with the sensation of being "mentally and physically present" for once.

Yes, his second-self hissed in his head, wondering now if the cub would even acknowledge him at all. Phineas would love to hear about this... about the birth of Ace and Aesire's son...

There is a moose carcass that has been scavenged by coyotes nearby. +15 Health

The young boy had been so engrossed in his mini-lesson of figuring things out for himself that he barely noticed the hissing that he had heard. His subconscious had registered it but he passed it off as the wind and the vegetation in the area. He examined it further, debating whether or not he should pick it before deciding that it was not in his best interest. He would quickly look up only to see another wolf a few yards away. His head cocked to the side as he shot the man a very curious look as if he was something new to examine. The pup would slowly close the distance, moving a yard or two towards the Andreas man. Should he speak to it and say hello?

It looked like a wolf, so surely it had to be a wolf. He looked at the man again, blinking before speaking softly to the subordinate of Silent Moon Plateau. “Hello! I’m Wren!” He called out in a joyous tone. He had met his first stranger! This man was not his family because he had never visited the family den to see himself or Maeve. His momma had told him they didn’t have any family in the pack anymore because his uncle had left. He grinned at him with innocence and curiosity filling his eyes. Perhaps this man knew his parents or maybe he had never met them. Either way, it was something new and exciting for him to experiment with – social interactions with wolves he was not related to.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.

As the boy eagerly approached, Tannis' muscles seized up and he watched as he was quickly assessed. So trusting, so curious, so innocent... His heart felt as though it could have broken then and there; if he had been anyone else, this little sprite of a boy could have come to harm at the paws or teeth of a stranger. His mind was boomeranged back into his past where the memories of his siblings danced beneath the leafy canopy... where poor, little, innocent Marius had been snatched up by the Corvinuses and put to death before he could even understand the whole workings of the world.

The cub's greeting had taken him by surprise, making him jolt as he introduced himself. Contrary to Tannis' current mantra, he did exist, he was standing the ground and his side hurt. He was now an audience for Wren, who obviously knew that Tannis was not a ghost nor a figment of anyone's imagination...

He had to take a moment to recover himself, his heart still beating like an endless rhythm of a dozen thunderclaps against his ribcage. Tannis shook his head as he grimaced, unsure for the time being if it was a good idea or not to speak to the youth. In his stint of avoiding and evading most everyone in the pack, he no longer had a grasp of what was going on. For all he knew, Ace and Aesire probably owned the pack and Phineas had been demoted; or, perhaps, he, for as long as he was loyal to Phineas, was actually not allowed to have any sort of business with the pair (and their son). His tongue curled over itself behind his teeth. Was it worth it? he wondered.

The masked man averted his gaze, tucked his tail, and took a step away from Wren, but in his head the memory of his brother told him that it was okay. A breath released itself from his lungs and when he looked into that pair of puppy-blue eyes he found that he felt obligated to protect him... to prevent history from repeating itself if he could help it. Where he was from, cubs were not a simple commodity or an asset, they were a pack's lifeblood and future. Even if Wren was not his Leader's son, he, too, deserved a good shot at life.

"You shouldn't be out here, Wren, without your parents around."

The ghost of a man would finally speak which caused Wren to be confused. It wasn’t the fact that he had spoken; it was more of what he had said. He said that his parents should be with him when he was out in the open and he was quite confused by it. “Why? I don’t underswand, sir.” He had almost made it through the sentence but the bigger words always seemed to catch his tongue. He wondered if there were dangers in the pack lands that his parents had not told him about. “What’s your name?” The boy was curious and he would refuse to return to the den without finding out information that he could turn into a story for his sister, who seemed so fragile. He felt a need to protect her even if he couldn’t at the moment.

Part of the reason he sought a name was because he had told the man his own and he had an instinct, almost a hunger, for obtaining knowledge. Once he had it, who knew what he would be able to do with it. His innocence would hopefully remain for a long time to come though one never knew what could possibly happen. This creature before him, this wolf or man or whatever he was to be called was quite curious. Wren wondered why he had been hiding from someone as small as Wren. That was what it had looked like to the boy, like he was hiding. This made him wonder what else he was missing, if anything.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.

“Why? I don’t underswand, sir.” That little voice continued again. The boy was smart, articulate in his words and courteous to boot. "Taah" was what Marius had once called him; at least Ace and Aesire had had a mind to educate their boy in giving respect where it was due. Tannis had spent the passing seconds in his head long enough for Wren to toss him another question, “What’s your name?”. Here was where the subordinate's eyes focused again, but this time he regarded the boy with worried eyes. His whiskered brows were so close to touching one another and the corners of his mouth had turned downward.

"The mountain is dangerous," he told the youth, his eyes darting to the place in the foothills where he figured Wren had come from, "and not every wolf you meet is... nice." I could have been that "anyone" with the paws that snatch and the teeth that bite, he went on in his head as his ears lowered. But I'm not.

"My name is Tannis," he then shared before looking over both shoulders as thought he were afraid that someone nearby might have been watching and listening. "Your mother and father are... friends of mine." Inside his head, he writhed; that was something someone said to instantly gain a little one's trust before stealing them away and Tannis had no intentions of doing just that. "They're my superiors." Now, while he didn't expect Wren to outright understand what that meant, he had said it anyway as though it were something the boy could use to fully decide if the narrow-chested brute was someone to be trusted.

His tail had uncurled some, hanging limply at his heels, "We belong to the same pack."

It was in this rare moment of confidence that Tannis truly shined, as though something within Wren had called to the man that Tannis had once been - someone who had been noble and patient and kind. Someone whose interests were not hiding and skulking about, but revolved around keeping his loved ones safe, "Now, did your mother say you could be out of the den?"

This strange man made the young boy very curious as he watched him answer his question. This place was dangerous with some mean wolves? If this was true, then why were his mother and father here? Were they dangerous? His curiosity once again started to bubble as he gave the man a smile. A name at last! Tannis. It didn't sound familiar and he said that he was a friend. "But how can that be if my ma and pa haven't talked about you?" He accidentally spoke these words out loud as his eyes visibly started to zone out as he tried to ponder his words. Tannis would speak next, drawing him back to reality with an explanation as to how the two of them were the superiors in Silent Moon Plateau.

The young guardian soon made some interesting connections that almost made his eyes widen. They were here, in Silent Moon Plateau, which had dangerous wolves. He knew his mum was a leader but his dad was not... did that mean everyone else except Maeve, his mum, his dad, and maybe even Tannis were bad wolves? "Who here is bad, Sir Tannis? I thought we were all a pack which means... family?" He was careful with his words as he approached the ground in not a questioning manner but a matter of curiosity and a need to know if he himself was in danger. He was clearly still trying to figure out what a pack was exactly with his last question being almost to himself. His words were courteous as he remembered something his mum had told him when he was still trying to say simple words correctly. He had been taught to respect everyone, because he was only a pup and they were all adults.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.

(This post was last modified: Jun 06, 2015, 10:04 PM by Wren.)

As much as Tannis wanted to say that trust was every bit apart of being a member of a pack, he held his tongue, knowing that Wren's circumstance was much different than most. Little Marius had understood because he had come into the world knowing about Tannis and his older sisters and their family. This boy, on the other hand, had come into a pack as a mere subordinate - he was neither the Leader's cub nor adopted into the pack. Wren had been born intoSilent Moon Plateau.

"We-ell," the tawny brute started again, still unsure about how he was going to go about answer the lad's question, seeing as they were both certain now that neither Ace nor Aesire had made any mention about the lowest-ranking male in the hierarchy. The words Sir Tannis snagged at his ears, but this time around he made sure to correct him, "Just Tannis. Titles are nice and respect, of course, is good, but--" not towards me, I don't deserve it... "--I'm just--" Nothing special. "--ordinary."

He made sure to recover himself; his ears even came up and forward a bit. While Relic Lore, thus far, had been quite a far cry from the perilous valley of Viktor's Run, Tannis still felt compelled to keep Wren safe, "We're all family here, yes, but there are wolves, strangers beyond the Plateau who might be dangerous and are not very nice... even if they seem like it. Y-You shouldn't talk to anyone you don't know, especially if they do not smell like us - of the mountains and the foothills." His pale eyes rove across the cub's mottled fur before holding Wren's eyes again, "Understand?"

The strange man would insist that the young boy not address him as ‘sir’ but instead call him by another name, his name, Tannis. The boy would give a lopsided grin as he spoke once more. “Okaey Tannis!” He would be slow when he said his words in order to make sure he pronounced them correctly. The man would say he was just ordinary. “Evewyone is speshal!” The young boy would insist this as he looked up towards the man for some sort off guidance as to whether or not this was true. There was no way this man was simply ordinary, because no one was ordinary. Everyone had something in them. His momma and papa were fierce warriors, and in turn very overprotective parents.

"We're all family here, yes, but there are wolves, strangers beyond the Plateau who might be dangerous and are not very nice... even if they seem like it. Y-You shouldn't talk to anyone you don't know, especially if they do not smell like us - of the mountains and the foothills." The words would make the young boy frown as he looked up at the man. “I underswand.” He would say as he looked towards the man, daring to ask another question. “Do yah know any gwood swories?” He would ask, a simple innocence shining in his eyes. His parents told him stories but he wasn’t sure he was ready to return to the den just yet. He wanted to spend more time with the wolves outside his family, including Tannis whom the boy was now quite fond of.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.