Shallows Edge I don't wanna do that, I just wanna do this

For @Lae

i crashed my car into the bridge

Phoenix knew she had been slacking in relation to maintaining an appearance with her pack mates of late, and there were new members she only knew by scent, so when one crossed her path on her way back from the red fern forest with a fat bird clenched between her jaws, she only took a moment to divert her trail to see which one this belonged to.

Having become accustomed to predominantly swarthy coats, the off-white of the old wolf stood out in stark contrast to their shadowy surrounds. She made no act of ceremony in dropping the pheasant and letting it roll towards her packmate. "Looks like it'd be better off in ya stomach than in a cache." Her observation was blunt, and the girls discomfort at dealing with social situations was evident in the way she let her eyes slide over the older wolf and into the trees behind her. She supposed she should introduce herself, but all that thought induced was a petulant sigh as she let her rump fall to the ground. "I'm Percy, I tend ta avoid crowds."

i watched, i let it burn

(This post was last modified: Oct 15, 2018, 01:09 AM by Phoenix.)

a dream within a dream

Lae did not hesitate. When the prey was dropped at her paws, she merely grunted in thanks and began to eat. She wasn’t starving, but food was food. She wouldn’t turn it down. It would do her some good, make it easier for the elder. This way she wouldn’t have to hunt herself. She didn’t say thanks, but it was clear from her eager munching that she was grateful. She stayed laying on the floor, the fur around her mouth turning red from blood. In-between bites she glanced up at the lady, her blind eye blinking slowly. Percy. An interesting name, Lae had not met any wolves named Percy before. It rolled off the tongue, repeating itself in the old lady’s jumbled mind.

She kept quiet at first. Holding the kill down with her front paws, she used the teeth in the side of her mouth to detach the animal’s head, spitting it out and feasting away at the breast. “Large bird,” she praised, licking the wound on its neck. “Must have been gaining for the winter.” She shrugged her shoulders subtly, as if to say oh well, then swallowed another bite. “Be careful of snakes in the area.”

i crashed my car into the bridge

This one, she decided, wasn't all bad. She didn't seem to talk unnecessarily either, and for that, the young wolf was silently thankful. "Probably, his loss, our gain." She shrugged, having never really considered the why behind prey being seemingly more before it became so much less when the days got colder and food became scarce. "Snakes should be slowin' down with the cold shouldn' they? Or are they bulkin' up like th' bears?" It was small talk, but it was enough to pull her rump to the ground. It felt... Foreign but normal all at once, like maybe this would be her every day if she wasn't so... damaged.

i watched, i let it burn

a dream within a dream

“Slowing down, but irritable.” Her recent snake accident was still fresh in her mind, too recent to be ignored. It had livened up the elder’s month, the most action she had encountered in a while. It was the only thing she felt necessary to report upon, the words escaping her mouth before she could acknowledge them. “They are confident this winter.” She chewed more meat, slowly, her appetite dying down. She did not need to eat much, meaning half the bird was still intact. She picked at it mindlessly, chewing the same bite for a few minutes as she considered the taste. Pheasant was one of her favourites.




Eventually she started to groom the blood off her paws too, cleaning up after the messy dinner. “I am Lae," she stated. The introduction was a second-thought, almost like she forgot. She nearly did. Admittedly, her memory was not the best, but regardless- she was trying. “Are you Askan’s mate?”

i crashed my car into the bridge

She allowed the older wolf to finish her meal in peace, comitting the name to memory with a small nod. What tumbled from her mouth next though, left the girl staring in silence. One slow blink and then another giving way to a high pitched giggle, one that shook her whole body and quickly devolved into snorts and peals of laughter. Yeah, this one was okay. Tears blurred her vision and her legs could no longer support her weight. She slid down to her belly, struggling to breath through the waves of laughter that wouldn't quite let up. Gasping, and laughing, the woman probably thought her stark, raving mad. She tried to shake her head in a 'No', but it was probably lost as her body continued to shake and convulse with peals of laughter.

"Nah," She tried to keep a straight face, but the laughter came again. It wasn't that she hadn't ever daydreamed as a younger wolf, but she knew he had Reyes, and they went so well together... that and he'd been around for as long as she could remember. "Nah, he's more like an uncle... or a dad, I guess... I've known 'im forever, like, since I was born." But she laughed again, wondering just what impression other outsiders had had of the pair over the years. "Why, ya got a crush on him?" She teased, still struggling to get her residual giggles under control.

i watched, i let it burn

a dream within a dream

The old lady had not expected such a response. The bewilderment from the younger woman was hard to understand. She couldn’t pinpoint what made the question so funny. She stared at the young girl intently, trying to figure it out. Eventually she was given a response, a clear one. They were not mates- how odd. Lae was so sure they could have been. Her romance meter was clearly off, but it was okay. There was a lot off about her. She hmphed, blinked absently, then smiled.




“He is quite handsome,” she laughed, her toothy grin stretching across her face. In her younger days she would have drooled over him, kissed the ground he walked on. She was old now, out of touch with her feminine desires. She did not remember how to flirt, how to court a man. It was all bizarre to her now, a foreign concept. “Beautiful eyes,” she added dreamily. “I can’t see very well in my old age,” she admitted cooly. “I know a handsome man when I see it though. I can smell it on them.”

i crashed my car into the bridge

Her giggling settled as Lae began to speak again, a sigh building at the back of her throat while the fur around her face warmed. Finally, she let the sound lose, a quiet, maybe even slightly bitter "Ya not wrong," offered in response before she drew in another deep breath. "But, some of us are always gonna just be kids t' some people, so what can ya do?" She forced a smile, the chuckle that followed her words a bit darker than her fit before. "So where did y' come from anyway? I bet you've got stories." She was eagre to change the topic as soon as possible. She didn't like talking about herself, not if it could be avoided.

i watched, i let it burn

a dream within a dream

Lae did have stories, tons of them. She had lived an exciting life- a full eight years. She reflected on it momentarily, her eyes clouding over nostalgically. She had learned a lot. She had known love and motherhood, anger, hatred, fear. There was so much pain in her past. It was almost too much to consider- but there was a lot of happiness too. How would she have known how special the good times were without the pain? She sighed, pulling herself out of it. The present was more important than anything. She was here now, at Shallow’s Edge. This was her new home, these wolves were her new family. She gave a subtle bittersweet smile at the idea, returning her focus to Pheonix. “East of here, passed the red mountains.”

She stretched out her front paws. “I am an old lady. All old ladies have stories.” The issue was trying to get her to keep her stories straight. Her memories weren’t always the clearest, and keeping a solid train of thought was difficult. Even now, she was losing her concentration. Her brown eye fluttered around absent-mindedly. She seemed to drift off mentally, then abruptly remember her companion and return focus. It was not easy.

(This post was last modified: Oct 16, 2018, 05:58 AM by Lae.)