Umbra Copse oh, she's a little runaway

Snippet ran. She ran until her lungs ached. She ran until her paws were bloody. She ran until she could no longer hear anything but the blood rushing in her ears. The world around her swam with tears as she raced onward. A few times she had heard the sound of her family calling for her but she didn't dare stop. In time she couldn't hear them at all. Their voices faded away like the very scents of home as she fled. Parsnip ran until she physically couldn't take another step and she collapsed into a trembling mess beneath an aged pine.

They would never forgive her for what she had done.

It didn't seem likely that there would ever come a time when she did not see her young cousin's face when she closed her eyes. The eagle's talons had left deep scores in the pup's face. They had punctured deep into his belly. There had been so much blood. It painted the tawny boy's pelt and soaked into the soft, loamy soil of the meadow. She could hear him crying as though he were right there beside her. He called out in fear and in pain. While the family rushed to answer that call, Parsnip turned and ran. It was her fault. The boy was as good as dead and it was all her fault.

It was better to leave before they had a chance to force her out for her crimes. Even so, she knew that she was not cut out for a life spent alone. As she sprawled on the nettles beneath the old tree and panted for breath she came up with a plan. She would find her grandfather - an exile like herself - and stay with him. Her family spoke of him as though he was a monster and now she was just like him. She would find him and align herself with him. He was all she had now. She would find him.

Snippet just needed a little rest first.

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[ 336 ] notes go here

@Larkspur

(This post was last modified: Oct 03, 2016, 06:49 PM by Parsnip.)

Larkspur barreled through the Spectral Woods after a rabbit, crashing through shrubs and fallen branches. He was ferocious, snarling and snapping as he attempted to snap the thing up. It darted left, right, it tried going under trees and shrubs, but Larkin was persistent. While normally it was hard to pull him from the chase, he saw something that stopped him dead in his tracks. A distance away a large white wolf glared at him, their eyes bright yellow and ferocious. His heart wildly thumped against his chest as he stared at the other male, both unmoving for a few moments. "Laurel?" he whispered, but the wolf ran.

Larkspur, knowing full well that his brother was dead, ran too.

The whole time he thought he'd been on the wolf's tail, but somehow they kept just ahead of him. He chased the white, golden eyed ghost (because what else could it be?) far out of Oak Tree Bend, out of Spectral Woods. He continued south until his lungs felt like they were about to burst, until his legs burned far worse than they ever had before. Laurel was soon out of sight, or had disappeared, and Larkspur let his hind legs collapse to the ground so he could catch his breath.

He hung his head, jaws parted as he heavily panted and attempted to get his breathing to normal again. That fear that he'd had a few days ago stared to eat at him again. Laurel was dead, ghosts did not exist, and he would have caught the wolf, had it been real. But it wasn't real, it was in his head. Larkin tightly closed his eyes as he felt the onset of a headache start to bore into his skull.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Laurel again, but a younger, smaller version of him. The white man snarled then, charging at the girl with every ounce of anger he had left in him. Which, if you didn't know, was a lot. But her eyes were not yellow and fierce, like Laurel's had always been. The girl had orange eyes.

She had his eyes.

Still breathing heavily, Larkspur stopped his assault. He stared at his granddaughter in disbelief. He hadn't seen her since last year's winter, and there was no reason for her to be here. He snapped at the girl, "What did you do?"

For a long while the girl did little more than draw deep, greedy breaths into her starved lungs. Her sides heaved violently. Wide, orange eyes stared unseeing ahead of her as she lay on her bed of nettles. Eventually, however, her breaths slowed and she became aware of her surroundings and a growing sense of dread began to edge in alongside the devastating guilt. The trees were dense and the forest dark. If that was not enough, the ghostly mist made it truly hard to see more than a few feet ahead of her nose. Her hackles rose with trepidation and her limbs began to tremble with fear as well as exhaustion.

Every little sound seemed to echo through the thick fog and her ears swiveled this way and that in a paranoid attempt to track them all. These were the natural sounds of the forest, but the unknown was frightening - too much so for the girl so soon after the trauma she fled from. Suddenly the ambiance of the spooky copse was broken by the sounds of something crashing through the mist. Parsnip gulped and pressed herself as flat as she could against the nettles. If she made herself small enough, perhaps she could avoid notice. It wasn't a good plan by any means, but it was all she had in her current state. 

Good or not, the plan seemed to work for a moment. The wolf sat back on his haunches and panted - catching his breath after his own run. If she waited it out, she would be safe. She'd be fine. It was all going to be fine. At least, that might have been the case before those burning orange eyes opened squarely on her. The beast was up on his feet and gunning for her in an instant and she froze wide-eyed in terror. The sharp, unmistakable scent of urine filled the damp air as she voided her bladder. It was an act of submission as much as it was one of fear. Perhaps it was this act that stopped the wolf in his tracks. 

Snippet didn't recognize her grandfather initially, though it was not long in coming to her. A year was not nearly enough time for her to have forgotten him. "Opa?" She had made the plan to search for him, but she had not dared to dream that he would stumble upon her like this. She felt a quick surge of hope, though it was quickly dashed when he growled out, 'What did you do?' Parsnip whined and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "Juni died because of me." The girl was miserable and heartbroken. Guilt was written in every line of her body. It was etched permanently into her skin. 

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[ 457 ] oh no! snippet peed her pants :C 

(This post was last modified: Oct 03, 2016, 08:18 PM by Parsnip.)

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

Larkspur didn't know how to feel, so he felt a little bit of everything. He was frustrated that the girl had shown up, he was scared because he'd seen Laurel, he was worried that this was some sort of ruse. For what, he didn't know, but he still found himself hesitantly looking around them. There was nothing that he could see through the thick mist, nothing he could smell but the forest and the girl's urine. He couldn't be sure that he was safe and felt like he couldn't really allow himself to relax.

Then his little Snippet let out a whine that was sad enough to break his heart. He stared at her miserable form before finally getting up and pressing his nose to her cheek. "Shh, little Snippet," he thought she smelled like home, and that only brought another sad pang in his chest. He couldn't forget, though, he could not let his guard down. It frustrated him to feel this way, even towards his own kin, but he had to do what was best for him.

He nudged her to move, god forbid she sit in her pee and smell like it for the rest of the day. "Walk with me, and tell me what happened," although he was tired, he couldn't allow himself to sit down. It was then that Larkspur played with the notion that the girl may be telling the truth. "And no matter what you did, I forgive you," he thought for a second, and then added: "The same can't be said for the rest of them, now can it?"

(This post was last modified: Oct 03, 2016, 08:50 PM by Larkspur.)

When her grandfather pressed his cold nose into her damp cheek she whimpered again, desperate for even that little bit of comfort. She didn't want to walk anywhere. She certainly didn't want to talk about what had happened to Juniper. She wanted to lay somewhere dark where no one could see her cry and sleep. Whatever she wanted, Larkspur was her grandfather and so had a role of authority over her. He nudged her and she crawled closer to him and out of the pee-soaked nettles with her tail tucked up between her legs. Her muscles protested, but Parsnip forced herself up onto her paws at his urging. 

The yearling stuck close to her grandfather's side to draw a meager sort of comfort from the points of contact between them. "They'll never forgive me," she murmured woefully with a sniffle. He claimed that whatever she had done he'd forgive her, but Snippet was having trouble believing him. It was terrible, what she'd done - what had happened. She couldn't even forgive herself. "I was supposed to be watching him," she started, though emotion choked her words. "I said I'd watch him. He was just a puppy." Her paws ached with every step, but she figured she deserved to suffer that pain. 

"I forget things a lot. All the time. I try to remember and be good, but I just.. forget and there was this butterfly. It was really pretty and I wanted to eat it. So I chased the butterfly and I forgot about Juni in the meadow! He was all alone and an eagle got him!" She couldn't walk anymore. She stopped and let her head drop until her nose was nearly resting on the ground. Fat tears dripped from the end and the soil gladly drank them up. "There was so much blood, Opa.."

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(This post was last modified: Oct 03, 2016, 11:06 PM by Parsnip.)

He walked slowly, though if only for her sake, as she told her tale. Larkspur could believe it. He'd known hawks to swoop at deer when they were hungry enough and a pup wasn't so different. He'd known Parsnip to be spacey and it had even baffled him that someone thought it might be a good idea for her to take care of something. She was grown now, but somehow he doubted the girl would even be able to take care of herself.

Snippet's story was making more sense to him, but her sitting down and crying about it was only fueling the bubbling frustrating that he had. Lark resisted the urge to bite at her and push her onwards, but also knew to take it slow. "Yes," he said, "pups are so fragile.." Larkin grew silent to let the girl cry, knowing she might have needed a moment. He moved to take a seat next to her, letting his cheek rest against her back.

The opportunity had appeared, and so Larkspur sprung on it. "It's cruel how harsh they can be to their own packmates," he sounded sympathetic, "To their own family," he sounded angrier now. He had lived this story before, but the stakes had been much higher than Parsnip's were. She was dumb and foolish and a child. He had been the alpha, and he'd had it all. Larkspur would be a liar if he said he didn't want it again. But he was also powerless now, he was low on the totem pole within Oak Tree Bend. Hell, his only support was Sahalie, a wolf whose stupidity may have rivaled Snippet's. "We're one in the same, I guess," he smiled sadly. They weren't.

"Which is why we need to stick together, little Snippet. We can disown our old life, and forgive one another, and live in peace." He harbored a deep hatred for his birthpack, and he was certain it wouldn't be so hard to instill the same feelings in Parsnip. Somehow, he doubted their old pack would blame the girl for something that was the fault of another. They were not known to be cruel; he was. He had done wrong for their whole pack, but still found it easy to blame others for his own faults.

He had killed out of rage, he had killed in cold blood, he had even killed for reasons that he couldn't explain. Parsnip, on the other hand, had made a simple, forgivable mistake.

Not that he'd ever let her know that.

(This post was last modified: Oct 03, 2016, 11:34 PM by Larkspur.)

Parsnip wept bitterly for several long moments. Her eyes burned. Her chest ached. Her muscles trembled. She was a wreck, but when her grandfather came and sat at her side - rested his head against her in comfort - her breath hitched and shuddered. She drew in one deep breath after the other and clawed her way back to composure just as he began to speak. It was cruel, wasn't it? How they would have thrown her out for what had happened. She hadn't meant for it to happen! She was family just as much as Juniper was. Everything the old man said soaked in - the girl had no defenses against it. 

Larkspur was angry - not at Parsnip, of course - but at the way she had been treated. (Well, how she would have been treated if she'd stuck around long enough.) The way he had been treated. When he said they were one in the same she sniffled and leaned heavily into his side as she raised her head from the soil and nettles. The words he spoke couldn't erase the pain and guilt she felt, but they did inspire hope in her. She wasn't going to be alone. He forgave her and she forgave him just the same. They were both the same now - exiles from their family. They could make their own way together. 

"Okay, Opa. If.. if you can forgive me for what I did, then I of course forgive you. I want to stay with you." Those big, wet eyes - eyes she'd gotten from him - looked up at her grandfather. They were brimming with emotion - all the things she felt were clearly on display. The child couldn't keep a secret to save her life. Guilt and fear mingled with love and trust and hope. It was too much for one little wolf to feel all at once, but somehow she managed. Snippet sniffed once more and offered the old man a weak, trembling smile. Things were not okay - not yet - but someday they would be. 

 "What do we do now? Where do we go?"

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(This post was last modified: Oct 06, 2016, 04:29 PM by Parsnip.)

Larkspur wondered how pathetic he had looked when he'd been abandoned. He guessed not, because he hadn't really wasted so much time laying around crying. He had been angry before he'd allowed himself to be scared, and even then Lark still did his best to push any fear down. He was an ex-alpha, sure, but he was still strong and with plenty of fight left in him.

With a few words, the deal was sealed. "We'll stick together, then," he pressed his nose to her cheek again, licking away a few of her salty tears. "There's a pack I've been staying with, north from here." It had only seemed a few weeks ago that he was determined to just continue his way north. But he'd found a home in Oak Tree Bend, and although he was reminded of how much he disliked not being on top, he was comfortable. Comfortable was all he really wanted anymore, just so long as he could work until he was too tired to do anything more and sleep the rest of the day. But Oak Tree Bend was growing large and he was uncertain if Serach or Spieden would welcome another yearling in their pack.

They'd cross that bridge when they got there, he supposed. Plus, it was doubtful that the alphas would deny his own family entrance.

"We can travel a little today, then rest," he was still tired after his run and was sure that Parsnip might need a good snooze to collect herself again. He couldn't bring home a crying, sniffling runt. "Tomorrow we'll catch a rabbit, as an offering, and meet one of the alphas," it seemed like a good enough of a plan.

"You do know how to catch a rabbit, don't you?"

Parsnip drew in another slow, shaky breath and closed her eyes as he grandfather licked away the salt from her tears. With a few more deep breaths the girl found herself in control once more - though it was a tentative hold. Larkspur had found a pack. She would go with him and find a home with them too. Neither of them would have to be alone. She couldn't go back and undo what had been done. She couldn't bring Juniper back from death. She couldn't stop herself from chasing after that butterfly. All she could do was move forward, and that's what she was going to do. She opened her now dry eyes once more and climbed unsteadily onto her tired paws. 

"I'm tired, but I can go a little further," she assured him with a small smile and a brief wag of her tail. As for the rabbit, well.. Parsnip looked askance and let her ears fall back in shame. Her whole posture changed. She hunkered down and tucked her tail up between her legs. "I almost caught one on my own, but then I saw this funny looking tree and I got distracted.." It was how many of her hunting lessons had ended as well. The quick-footed girl would have had no problem with the long-ears if she could only remain focused enough on the target. It hadn't been something she'd managed so far. Snippet ducked her head, sure of the rebuking she'd get. She was too old to be so helpless. That's what everyone said. 

"I'll try, though. I promise. I'll try really hard."  

The girl looked back at her grandfather and stretched up to lick at his chin. She'd be good. She's listen. She'd pay attention and try really, really hard to follow all of Larkspur's instructions. She was an obedient, submissive little thing. It would be far too easy to turn and twist her into whatever shape he wanted. "Will you tell me about your pack, Opa? Will they like me? Will I have anyone to play with?"

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[ 343 ] what a baby