Grizzly Hollow bye bye black sheep, have you any soul?

Ophelia has returned home after being gone for about 4 days. She is mangled almost beyond recognition and very weak. All packmates welcome, but tags especially for @Oula, @Veho, and @Rook

She woke to the sounds of carrion birds fighting. She felt the talons of one on her back and weakly lifted her head to snap at it. The action resulted in a pained whine as it pulled uncomfortably at her torn neck. The whine itself vibrated the ruined turbinates of her nasal cavity and she lowered her head miserably. Ophelia didn't need to look to know that the wolf behind her was dead. On shaking limbs, she lifted herself up and placed one paw in front of the other towards home. The ruined princess did not turn back. There was nothing behind her for home was ahead.

It took a full two days. By the time she reached the borders of home, she shook hard with fever and her breaths came out in pained little gasps. Her lungs hurt as badly as her neck, her face. Ophelia knew she could not even howl to let them know she was home without setting her nose aflame. So she trudged onward with a singular goal in mind. Get home. Home to Mama and Daddy and Papa.

Her pale coat, once so pristine and vibrant, was stained with dried blood and mud from the times she'd fallen on her journey. Every part of her ached, but still she carried on, looking only for the comfort family could offer. Daddy could fix her right up. He was the best healer. Could the best stitch her torn neck back together? Fix her nose so it didn't hurt so badly? Make her lungs work properly again and not feel so full of bad stuff? Even if he couldn't, he was still the best healer.

As Ophelia neared the den, her will diminished and her limbs crumpled beneath her. At least Mama wouldn't have to wonder what happened to another one of her children. She'd come home. Ophie hoped Joannie and Fee would, too. One day.

Oisin had been sorting the medical, a usual daily task for her but after a few moments something felt...off. Was it a funky smell?Had something rotted in one of the caches? Awkwardly she fumbled about until she exited the medical den and headed towards the main den. The smell in the air was sickly and heavy with a scent she never thought she'd smell again. Her gut twisted. It was impossible. Everyone was very healthy from Oisin's small check-ups.

Just around a few more trees showed what was in the air. She stumbled backward and fell straight on her rear. Oisin had thought she'd been scared before but this was so different. So vilely differently. Who was that? Calling them a shell of a wolf would have been too much. Her jaw had been hanging open as she examined the poor soul that laid there. She was a medic, she should be doing something but fear had grasped her and was refusing to let go. The small female could not summon a howl or even a soft whine. Her throat felt tight and dry.

She had to do something but no lessons had prepared her for this. Nothing her father or Veho had taught her had prepared her to see something so undefinable laying before her. Was the poor soul still alive? Oh god....what if it was? Oisin supposed that was what kicked her brain into gear as she nauseously fumbled to her paws and approached the mangled form of a wolf. She didn't want them to suffer more than they had. It looked so bad.

On her stomach she crawled closer, scared but knowing she needed to do something besides stare in fear. "Are...are," Oisin found herself choking on her words and perhaps a bit of vomit. She needed Veho. Now.

Oisin

Cross my heart and hope for better days

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

Four days Ophelia had been gone. Four days too long. Already two of her children were missing from her life, whole or hurt, dead or alive she didn't know, and that hurt more than anything else. And now Ophelia was missing, too. It was too much, and it was too unlike her gregarious little girl to be gone for so long. Oula searched high and low, as much time as she could spare between watching over Roland. For what if something happened to him, too? Fear gripped her heart, and thoughts immediately turned to Azar. Oula had no illusions towards the dangers that lurked out there, and knew very well what could happen to a solitary girl. Hell, Oula liked to think she herself had wits and experience, and she'd still fallen for another's nefarious guiles. As sharp as Ophelia was, she had little experience and would be even more helpless out there, whether or not she ran into a wolf who meant her ill. Just as easily Ophelia might have slipped into a river, or gotten kicked by a buck. Any multitude of things could have happened, and each day that passed without Ophelia only increased the growing sense of dread within the mother.

Oula had slipped away from her watch of Roland to search again for Ophelia, another search coming up fruitless and forcing her to again turn back home. Her shoulders were slumped with defeat, pale eyes sunken with little sleep and ears hanging low. Yet as she returned she caught a pungent scent, blood and earth and infection, but beneath that was something a mother wolf could never forget. The scent of her child. Oula's heart felt as if it dropped straight into the earth below, and though her limbs felt numb and distant her body immediately lurched forward with little thought. 

She was running, the forest a blur and nothing but memory and instinct guiding her through the territory. At the den was a small shape, coated in the same rancid scent of blood and filth she'd caught earlier. She didn't see Oisin, and truly anyone else on the planet was inconsequential at the moment as she bolted towards her daughter's side. "My baby!" She wailed. This was wrong, a nightmare come true. Her daughter shouldn't look like this.

Reedy whines escaped her throat in abundance as she brushed her tongue over Ophelia's soiled coat, her face, her ears. Anything to brush away the filth, the hurt, for there was little else the mother could do.

Ophelia too had gone missing. At first, the alpha had simply assumed she took no interest in the pups she was not related to – frankly, that was her prerogative. If he were not leader, Veho was not certain he would have much interest in them, either. But he was, so he thought little of her absence until a day turned into two, and more after that. Like Oula, he took what free time he had to search the lands surrounding their borders; what if Azar had come back? What if he wanted more this time?

The grey wolf was just on his way back out when Oula’s unmistakable voice carried through, accompanied by the stench of blood – and his heart plummeted. Fast as he could, Veho raced to the scene, everything else forgotten as he spotted the woman hunched over their fallen daughter. She looked-- She looked—

He stopped the thought before it could finish, appearing by her head to nose at her crown. “Ophelia,” he choked. Who had done this to her? Who had hurt his little girl? He brushed his tongue across her brow.

“Oisin – run to the medical den, as fast as you can. I need ergot, yarrow, and hellebore. Now.”

Medic Demonstration 1/3

(This post was last modified: Jul 06, 2017, 03:46 PM by Veho.)

Just a cameo unless I am tagged for some other turn of events! :)

He ought to have been born black for he was a shadow.

His mother's mounting distress had not been lost on him. He was used to his mother coming and going, and used to her being away from him for longer periods of time as the days went on. But he sensed some other purpose to her departures and became curious to know what it was she was up to. What it was that made her uneasy, for in some ways it made him uneasy too. Still a pup, the silver boy continued to take cues from her, to look to her for answers on how to navigate his world.

She slipped away again and he, growing ever most ghost like in his steps and stride, soon slipped after her. His legs were lengthening. His spine too. His muscles were stronger and so all together he could travel faster and, with a bit of effort, keep up with his mother well enough. But he minded his distance, and favored the tall ferns with fronds that fanned out above his back. He did not want to be seen.

Roland scented what his mother scented. She rocketed forward in upset but he had a sparse reaction. His brows furrowed in bewilderment but he was otherwise nonchalant. Unable to chase her at a sprint he put his nose to the ground and tracked her to where others had gathered around Ophelia — a wolf he recognized. She had come to the den. Had put a paw on his head. His nose wrinkled at the memory, but it was fleeting. His focus soon shifted to his mother.

She was bowed over Ophelia. Wailing for her and tending her by tongue and nose. Roland's eyes narrowed and his face darkened. The limp curve of his relaxed mouth tightened and quivered over his small fangs. He seldom made a sound, but there was whisper of a growl deep in his throat and his nails bit at the earth. Bristling and steeped in a severe and twisted jealously, Roland abruptly pivoted and left.

Pip has snagged Roland and carried him back to the other pups. This shall be Pip's only post in this thread.

Pupsitting along her mate had become a favorite past time. As much as she enjoyed looking after her son, it was much more enjoyable to see how he interacted with other pups his age. The little mute noticed Roland's absence and set off to find him with a frown. Not long after Oula had left the boy with her did he disappear. With a lick to Kjell's forehead, the omega trotted off in search of the boy and stumbled upon the gathering.

Her hackles stood on end as the scent reached her. As wolves darted about, the sea wolf saw a flash of pale gray fur amidst a bloodied, unrecognizable face. Ophelia. No one has had a coat quite like hers. It had always been pretty, but not now. Now it was dull and coated in mud and blood. Thick clots looked to be tangled in the longer fur along her chest while the shorter hairs of her front legs looked stiff with the mire.

The girl had never been overly kind to her. But she'd tried. She didn't deserve such a fate. No one deserved such a fate. Ophelia was coarse and unrefined despite her looks speaking of her regal bearing. But she was young and had so much life left to live. The looks on her parents' faces were easy to read and so heartbreaking to observe. She dipped her head sorrowfully before she spotted Roland stomping away. Oh, no. He hadn't seen that, had he? Horrified, the little omega hurried after him and tugged him up by the scruff gently before returning him to the rest of the pups. She could only hope he was too young to know what he had seen.

Ophelia was dimly aware that another had come upon her. Good. She made it home. Home where the woods smelled so fragrantly and she had always been welcome. The pale princess's labored breathing filled her ears, but could not drown out the choked half-words of a female. The new one, she realized. Would she know who she was?

But then there was Mama and Ophie spared no more thought to the first. Mama, mama, mama. She flinched weakly when Oula's tongue swiped over her wounds and groaned weakly. Hurts, Mama. It hurts. Everything hurt. So much that it was difficult to focus on the bits of her that did not. As Oula wailed, so too did Ophie's heart. She knew. She knew, but Mama would never say. She had already lost so much. Did she really have to be another? Mama was only just getting over the loss of the little one. Ophie thought back to the nights she lay curled around Oula in her den while Roland suckled her. Mama had wept so much. She deserved a lifetime of happiness where there was never a reason more for her to weep. The pale little Macieo regretted that she was yet another cause for her weeping.

And then Daddy. Daddy was there and whatever strength she had to hold back the tears crumbled the very moment she felt his tongue on her forehead. There, at least, did not hurt. While his tongue was there, she could focus on that spot. It helped. Marginally. She heard him snapping out orders while she cried. Her Daddy. Leader of Grizzly Hollow. That monster near the creek would have cowered in fear from her Daddy where he had not from her.

Ophelia wanted to tell them all of it. How she'd stood her ground and even fought for Pip. For herself. For the pack. How she hoped they were proud even if she let them down a lot. She didn't really want to let them down. She wanted them happy. Instead, she tried for disjointed humor. There was little hope. Ophelia knew that. It terrified her for she had no knowledge of what came after death. But she was luckier than most. She got to come home to her Mama and her Daddy and her pack. She got to see them one last time. So she tried to offer what hope she could. "You...should see...the other...guy," she wheezed, though her face crumpled with the pain that talking brought.

Yet, once words had come, more spilled out. "'M sorry. Sorry, I love you. So. Much. Ma - Don't." A harsh whine. "Ma, don't cry. Da - ddy. Make it...stop."

Her eyes caught a glimpse of Oula running onto the scene and she so badly wanted to stop the woman but the cry that came forth instead stopped Oisin.

"My baby!"

It seemed to ring around her head for what felt like forever. The desperate wail of the mother along with the scene before her, a terribly injured girl with a mother tending to her, made Oisin feel weak at the knees. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to see this. Her mind seemed to halt any thoughtful processing. Dirty yellow eyes couldn't find the strength to look away from the scene. She clenched her eyes shut tightly as Veho joined them and swept his tongue across the mangled girl named Ophelia. It was only the lead male's strong last word that sent her fumbling off.

The girl that was once so speedy and graceful seemed to knock her shoulders into trees or hit her paws on roots. It was going to hurt later but the image of that girl and the voices of Veho and Oula hurt right now. She slid with an anxious into the den and grabbed the things Veho had asked for. Ergot, yarrow, and hellebore. The small medic grabbed large amounts of each without concern. Things could be tidied and restocked later.

She rushed back out into the world. The air in her lungs felt heavier now than it had just this morning. Oisin didn't expect this to happen but how could anyone? Did anyone? She tried to hush her mind as she made it onto the scene. The Hollow wolf placed the plants close to Veho before taking a few steps back. As much as she wanted to leave the area she lingered around like a shadow in case he needed extra paws.

Oisin

Cross my heart and hope for better days

medic demonstration 1/3

Oula vaguely recognized Veho's appearance, slightly moving aside to allow him to reach Ophelia while still hovering over her daughter's mangled frame. His commanding voice asked for medicine, but Oula was not sure if there were enough herbs in the world for this. There was so much, so much blood, torn skin, and-- and her face. Her daughter's beautiful face... Oula felt so sick, and had never felt more afraid in her life.


Ophelia began to speak, and Oula listened carefully, leaning close. Other guy. Fuck, Oula didn't want to think about what vile entity had done this to her darling. In any other case, she would have been proud of her daughter putting up a fight, or stormed off to make sure whoever had done this was not only dead but torn into so many pieces it would be impossible to count. But there was no pride as her child lay dying at her feet. Maybe later she could worry about the attacker, but now the only thing that mattered was Ophelia. 

Each labored, broken word that wheezed from Ophelia's mouth was like an arrow straight to her heart. Her eyes burned, and a thick knot had formed in her throat. "Shh, shh, it'll be alright, baby. It's okay. I'm so proud of you, baby," She tried to assure her daughter while her voice shook, "I love you too, sweetheart."