Cedarwood Forest The Hunt

<i>Kauda's heavy paws fell upon the soft dirt of the familiar path she was traveling. Her deep, blue eyes, filled with many secrets that no other wolf knew, searched the area in front of her cautiously. Her ears were pricked. It's too quiet, she thought to herself, and there's the scent of prey. Flicking her fluffy onyx black tail, she peeked around a tree. Nothing. Kauda narrowed her eyes and threw her head around, this time finding what she was scenting. A tall buck, rather thick through Kauda's eyes, was munching happily at the green grass beneath him. The she-wolf couldn't ruin her chance at prey, as it was very scarce for her when the packs took her prey. She let herself slowly turn around, careful where she placed her paws. She narrowed her eyes electric blue eyes, that were sure she could do this. But, she was still young and she couldn't take the buck alone. The small she- wolf crouched, shifting her haunches as she walked. She placed one paw in front of another, quietly stalking forward. Finally, when she was close enough to the tall buck, she sprang. What a terrible decision this was. The buck threw his head around, pointing his sharp antlers up at her. Her eyes were wide with fear as she began to fall back down. The buck reared, throwing his hooves up and smashing Kauda in the face with them. The she- wolf fell to the ground, tumbling and rolling. Blood slowly trickled from the wound the buck had made on the side of her forehead. Kauda narrowed her eyes, watching the buck run quickly back to his family.</i><b>"Shoot. I'm not going to get a buck like that again."</b><i>Kauda muttered to herself. She pushed herself off the ground and glanced around, hoping that nobody was watching. That was a horrible mistake she had made, trying to take on a buck. She was only a year old, and just by 2 days.</i>

<b>OOC: Kind of a useless post, but I'm hoping it'll get me started.</b>

(This post was last modified: Feb 03, 2011, 08:34 PM by Kauda.)

<blockquote><ul><b>ooc</b>→ Loooodeeedoo. Let's pretend packs aren't important, because technically I'm not accepted into one, but I'm about to be unless something wikid weird happens and that's just creating a timeline mess for meeee~ Anyway hi.</li></ul>For some reason, although the sharp, attentive yellow eyes had been peering out at this young wolf for some time from behind some wrinkled tree trunk, they had not come out to play. Instead, they watched, rarely blinking, set in the skull of a vigilant, marbled brown gargoyle of a wolf. Ozera was friendly enough, sure, but she smelled the buck too. Hungry as she was, Ozera knew she was in no shape to take something that smelled so healthy down by herself, or do anything brash that would cause the deer to on her and doll out the pain.

However, it appeared that this was not the case with sable yearling. As Ozera watched, she wondered why all the wolves she had met so far were either black and white. Was something messed up with her eyes? There must be. Regardless, the little wolf, who could not be more than a year old --if even that-- wanted to take down this beast on her own. <i>Why is she even on her own? Where are her parents?</i> But her reverie was interrupted by a sickening crack that nearly made her jump out of her skin. Peering out from behind the bark, matted with snow, she saw the buck crash back to the ground and fall back down, pivoting wildly, it's eyes demented and filled with fear as it raced away through the trees. Lying in the snow, she recognized the heap of black fur. With a mind full of worry, Ozera took a step forward. But the little wolf appeared to be alright, since she dragged herself back to her feet. She was bleeding, though, from a gash on her forehead.

"<b>Are you alright?</b>" she called warily, a hopeful smile on her face.

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(This post was last modified: Feb 03, 2011, 09:39 PM by Ozera.)

<b>OOC: Yea! That's great. ;) Sorry, I had to get off for a bit.</b>

<i>The small she- wolf's head shot up quickly. If her she didn't have fur, not to mention fur as dark as the night sky itself, her cheeks would've been a bright red with obvious embarassment. For a brief moment, she didn't see any other wolf. Her wide, electric blue eyes were curious as they began to search, occasionally blinking a drop of blood out of her eyes. Her young blue eyes finally spotted the blob of brindle brown (?) in the distance, standing by a tree. Her eyes flitted down to her paws in embarassment.</i><b>"Urrhh... Yea, I'm fine."</b><i>Kauda muttered uncertainly, taking a few steps forward towards the she- wolf. Where's your parents, how old are you, why are you alone were the most commonly asked questions when she encountered a wolf, though there were the occasional why are you in pack territory, and sometimes the packs would kick her out as soon as she encountered them.</i><b>"I'm not in pack territory, am I? I- I'll get out."</b><i> she said, a little bit above a murmur, in a shaky voice.. Kauda wasn't looking for a fight, not in the condition she was in right now. As just a young she- wolf, she wasn't going to get far fighting the wolf, who looked experienced and strong.</i>

(This post was last modified: Feb 03, 2011, 11:46 PM by Kauda.)

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"<b>Shouldn't you know not to take on a whole healthy deer all on your own?</b>" Ozera laughed, but not unkindly. The question was not barbed with ill-intention, it just seemed like something very obvious like <i>"don't eat the yellow snow"</i> that this youngster had missed out on. Pity stung the older wolf as she took another cautious step in the direction of the wounded. Even if she claimed she was fine, doubt flickered in Ozera's eyes of deep gold, for the scarlet rivulet trickled freely down their shockingly vibrant eyes as they murmur red words barely audible. Her ears pricked forward keenly as she observed droplets like crimson tears stain the snow.

Ozera swept her tail of brown gradient woven disjointedly with long white threads of fur. It was long but unkempt, ruffled, unwilling to obey the current of fur. Instead, about her shoulders and hind quarters, her pelt churned and wrinkled like spiteful whitecaps tossed about at sea. Nervously, Ozera swung her head back to try and preen her billowing, deep, earthy shoulder fur as she tried to pick up the shaking, feeble voice of this injured little one. "<b>No,</b>" she replied softly, her voice slipping from her mouth, gently carried upwards with her frost-fog breath, "<b>I don't think anyone owns the place. Certainly not me.</b>"
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(This post was last modified: Feb 04, 2011, 12:19 AM by Ozera.)

<i>Kauda's eyes skimmed the dark, mottled brown wolf a few yards in front of her. Not to hunt deer on my own, well I was hungry, she thought bitterly to herself, narrowing her dark blue eyes.</i><b>"A wolf has to feed herself.</b><i> Kauda muttered silently, not bitterly and not snappy. She let her flurry black tail fall, showing submission. She didn't want to fight this she - wolf. Even though Kauda didn't think she was a threat, it was just common sense.</i><b>"Sorry."</b><i> she mumbled, not sure what she was appolagizing for... just filling the silent, crisp air with words. She continued to place one delicate jet black paw in front of another in the blinding snow, walking towards the she - wolf. When she was a few feet away, she paused and lowered her lithe onyx black body to sit on her haunches in the snow.</i><b>"Good,"</b><i> replied Kauda quietly to the she - wolf's last remark.</i><b>"I didn't want to be chased out again. It's too cold out here."</b><i> The young she - wolf's eyes flitted to her dark paws, flexing her claws out of boredom. She brought her dark, unreadable blue eyes to meet the she - wolf's honey golden.</i>

(This post was last modified: Feb 04, 2011, 12:56 AM by Kauda.)

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Although the yearling claimed that she needed to feed herself, and it was a logical enough statement, Ozera chuckled softly. "<b>There is much easier, safer game out there than deer, hun. Rabbits don't fight back so much.</b>" Even in the heart of winter, there was still food out there if you had senses marked by years of experience. But it wasn't fair to think that, she supposed, because this little shrimp had not had such opportunities to learn. Momentarily, Ozera wondered, deeply perplexed, as to how she could have survived on her own with a mind set and hunting skills like that. The black wolf was small, even for her age. <i>Perhaps her growth was stunted by her lack of food</i>. Suppressing the pity welling up inside of her throat, Ozera decided that this little scrap of ebony did not need her pity. Small and bleeding though she may be, she was here, wasn't she? She was alive, and that deserved a lot of credit.

"<b>No need to be sorry, you paid for your mistake,</b>" with a wave of her muzzle she indicated the freely bleeding souvenir the deer had left her. "<b>You should really try and stop the bleeding. Head wounds are a doozy.</b>" But the yearling just walked and sat down in front of her, looking into her eyes through those wild eyes of startling blue eyes. Deeply unsettled by this rather unnatural color, Ozera found herself looking away. Instead her eyes instead snagged on the pinpricks of milk-white snow whirling gently to the ground, borne by the gentle fingers of wind.

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<i>Kauda let out a short, silent sigh, sending a foggy mist into the air.</i><b>"The grass is dead, buried beneath the snow, and with the spiders hidden, there is no webs to use."</b><i> She murmured, showing that, besides her mistake, she was smart. She had an intelligent brain that sent brilliance plummeting through her veins. Seeing the discomfort in the she - wolf's eyes, she pulled herself around to pad back to her spot where she was before, where scarlett drops of blood stained the blinding snow.</i><b>"What might you be called?"</b><i> Kauda asked finally, feeling a little bit awkward with the crisp, cool air around them clear of any words. Kauda was usually quite talkative... with ones she was comfortable near. The small she - wolf dug her paw into the snow, letting the cool snowflakes melt until her paw was wet and clean. She then raised her paw up, wiping it across her wound. Hopefully, this would clean it. Kauda had only been alive for one winter, without supplies to treat herself with, and then she was just 3 days old and was being cared for by her loving mother. Goodness, just thinking about the beautiful she - wolf was enough to get Kauda stirring. She missed her so much, and her father, too.</i>

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Having been a loner for most of her life, Ozera knew how to be careful. Without a pack around, she could not afford to be sick or wounded, because then she would be rendered unable to care for herself, and she would most certainly die. As clumsy as she was, she guessed she was lucky. At any rate, she could recognize when a situation was dangerous or not. That being said, it left her with an abysmally limited medicinal knowledge, which hadn't included spider webs. She could not imagined that such fine gossamer strands could be of any real use. What would their purpose be? Dark and mottled shoulders shrugged: it mattered little to her. Clearly the other wolf knew what they were for, but it was of little difference since there would be none around. "<b>You should at least lay down, and try not to move too much. The faster your blood pumps, the faster it pours out of your head. Put your paw up against it, something like that.</b>" All knowledge in this case was merely practical, common sense.

Asked for her name, she opened her jaws, her breath rolling out in a thick, white smokestack, "<b>Ozera. But I'll go by any nickname you can come up with. And you, young stranger? What would you like to go by?</b>" Her conversational skills were caked in rust, and it probably showed: she smiled too much, or at least she felt like she did. Still getting used to company, she had this habit of just throwing out whatever was on her mind, like: "<b>My parents are dead. I know... Well, that's... Not to say yours are dead too. But I'm guessing you're not with them. And, maybe I don't understand completely what you're going through... If.. You're going through something. But I've been there, although I was a bit older than you. I miss them terribly.</b>" Smiling warmly, she hoped she hadn't just taken a step onto thin ice.

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<i>Kauda nodded, but didn't lay down yet. She blinked a few scarlet drops of blood out of her eyes with long, dark eyelashes before twisting her head around to look for a rock or something to lay on that wasn't the freezing snow. Luckily, there was a rock a few yards away. It wasn't very big at all, but Kauda wasn't very big either. She slowly began to walk towards it. When she reached the rock, she stared down at it. It wasn't hardly big enough for her. But, that didn't stop the young she - wolf. She crawled up onto the rock anyway, curling herself up on top of it. She barely fit, but she did, with her short black legs hanging off of the side. Kauda dipped her paw into the snow, letting it get wet with melted snowflakes, before she rubbed it across her wound again. 'Stupid buck,' she thought bitterly. She laid her head down on her paws, hoping that the wound, now cleaned with the snow, would stop bleeding. The she - wolf listened to the other, feeling a sort of comfort having her around.</i>

<b>"That's a beautiful name. </b><i> Kauda murmured, just barely loud enough for Ozera to hear. </i><b>"I'm Kauda, and I'll go by that. I'm sure Kau or Da wouldn't sound too great."</b><i> she traced her fluffy black tail along the imperfections and cracks in the rock she laid on. When she began to speak of how her parents were dead, she froze. Her dark, blue eyes began to fill with pain. When she spoke again, her voice was shaky. </i><b>"It's not been recent, what I've been going through.... I was born within the comfort of a pack. My father was very high in the ranks, he was nearly an alpha. From what I remember, he was the most handsome wolf in the pack. He was very tall and large, and that gave him an advantage over most wolves. He had dark brown fur, it was almost black, and golden brown eyes to match. His mate was the most beautiful wolf in the pack. She was short, quite like me. She had gorgeous fur, as white as she snow that covers the lands around us. Her eyes were a beautiful hazel. One day, they decided to be parents. They had two beautiful pups, me and my sister. We grew up closer than the closest best friends of the pack, and we loved our parents so much. One sunny day, we were listening to the fortune - teller of the pack. Everybody thought she was just an old she - wolf who didn't know what she was talking about. Well, she predicted that there would be a huge, unbelievable storm that was brewing miles away right at that moment. Nobody believed her, but we should've. A few days later, our mother and father disappeared. Nobody knew where they went. Me and my sister were traumatized. We couldn't stand it. The next day, the storm came, the one that the fortune - teller was talking about. My sister was carried away from the tornado, and so was I."</b><i> Kauda let a small tear slide down from her abnormal blue eyes. Her voice was shaky, unstable. </i><b>"To this day, I've been searching for them."</b><i> she finished slowly.</i>

<b>OOC: Do you know if we are allowed to create more than one character, and if so then how? Thanks!</b>

<blockquote><ul><b>ooc</b> - Yep! I'm pretty sure you can. Just do what you did the first time I guess. Although, if you have more questions I'd ask the admins, since I'm new here.</li></ul><i>Well,</i> Ozera thought as her eyes followed the small wolf to the rock, <i>At least she's keeping it clean. Sure would make for a nasty infection.</i> It was dreadfully easy for wounds to get infected when a wolf spent the day traipsing through the forest. And in the dead of the winter as icy and brutal as this one, what sort of treatments would be available? Any sort of plants and roots had been killed by the bitter, snapping jaws of the frost. She did not voice these concerns, nonetheless, because she did not, absolutely did not want to worry this little-- what was her name? Kauda. She did not want to worry Kauda, who was clearly haunted by enough as it was.

Listening intently to the tale of Kauda pained her. It was awful, gut-wrenchingly awful to be separated from those you love. Even worse to have their memories suspended in limbo while your mind contemplated whether to file them in the "dead" or "alive" file cabinet. "<b>At least I know my parents are dead. I can't imagine what it's like to wonder whether or not it's worth it to hope they're alive. I'm sorry.</b>" While she. spoke, Ozera had been moving closer, and now she stood above Kauda, looking down at her, feeling something in her breast. She had heard of this feeling before, but never felt it herself. What had it been called? Maternal instinct, something like that. Ozera did not dwell on this, though, because she was more confused by Kauda's usage of a word that sounded completely foreign: tornado. But this probably was not the time to ask. Whatever this <i>tornado</i> was, it was obviously a type of storm, a very dangerous one, and Ozera just couldn't ask Kauda to relive that memory and watch her sister be torn from her side all over again.

"<b>My parents were alphas. They were killed in an uprising, and I had to run away. I still feel so guilty. Maybe I could have saved them, done something, I don't know. But instead I was a coward, I ran. And I ran for nearly three years. It was an interesting three years, at least.</b>" She thought back fondly on those years shrouded in wanderlust and wonder, of fields of wildflowers every color of the rainbow, more colors than she had names for, vast bodies of water that tasted funny, mountains so tall that the tops were lost in the clouds. She sighed, and perhaps she was being a little precocious, but she found herself sinking down to the side of Kauda, lying beside her, protecting her from the wind. "<b>Would you like to here about it?</b>"



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(This post was last modified: Feb 04, 2011, 03:40 AM by Ozera.)