Heartleaf Creek doublethink, doubleplusungood

<blockquote>

Strange. Ozera could not remember visiting this piece of Relic Lore, before her accident. Then again, her presence in this land was still new, only a month or two. Picking her way over fallen, rotted trees and jumbles of rocks, the female mused at how close she already felt to this land in such a short time. Already, there were strange ties, a strange tugging in her paws, which called her back east, back to her home in Swift River. And yet, while her paws felt tugged, they also itched unmercifully. There was still quite a bit of wanderlust left in the Beta of Swift River. Still, it was amusing all the same, and laughter trickled, unbidden, from her mouth.

"Oh," she said to herself, in a sing-song voice, "Oh how good it is to be alive!" Suddenly, through the veil of leaves, she caught sight of a glimmer of water. A creek!, she trilled, delighted. Spring, which had arrived in this land a week or two ago, was an old friend of Ozera's. And every visit she paid was cherished and marked with jubilee and playfulness. Crashing through the remaining woodland growth that separated her from the creek, Ozera threw herself with abandon into the river.

"COLD!" She shrieked, half giggling, half horrified.

Dancing about, chasing her tail, but refusing stubbornly to get out, Ozera continued to howl and yip and complain. "Cold, cold, cold, COLD!" But she figured if she stayed in long enough, she would get used to it. It wasn't working. The river gurgled past her, frigid fingers tickling her coat and lancing her skin. "Cooooold." Stubborn, however, was Ozera's middle name.</blockquote>

(This post was last modified: Mar 17, 2011, 06:17 PM by Ozera.)

A month had passed since Weldering had been injured by the Swift River Pack, for the second time. Though his shoulder wound had been fairly bad at the time it was now healing, his long silver fur that ran over his body covering most of it up. It was also not affecting the way he walked or moved, sure laying on it was a pain from time to time and above all his hate for Swift River had not healed, not one bit. Actually it seemed to have gotten worse, Atiris had said that she had met Indru... then she had disappeared. Had those evil river wolves done something to her? Weldering would not put it past them.

'Oh how good it is to be alive!' The pleasant sing-song voice of the she-wolf echoed through the trees of the woodland. For a while it was enough for him to begin to forget about his problems as a warm smile crossed his ebony lips. Though yet again that peace seemed to be destroyed by a familiar scent, it did not belong to a Tainn but it still spelled Swift River which was something that Weldering was not comfortable with. Up until now with the exception of Ioni he had not met any adult females in Swift River, he had been starting to believe it was just one big pack of annoying bachelors - he shrugged it off.

As he closed in to where the voice had come from his icy blue gaze soon fell upon the figure of the wolf, watching as she whined about how cold the water happened to be. The black masked large Beta simply stood there with a stoic and unimpressed glare. If it had been anyone else other then a member of Swift River then he would have been giggling too, he would have jumped in and tried to splash her and make her more cold - water fights were his specialty. But no, this was the enemy. Even Alexander had told the pack to be weary of Swift River and his Alpha would not have said that without reason. Reason or not from his Alphen he knew from personal experience that members of Swift River - with the exception of Borlla and Junai, were not to be trusted.

What seemed to annoy Weldering was that Indru spent all his time ranting at Weldering - telling him where he was or was not allowed to be. It was for that reason he had adopted a similar take when regarding those closest to the Swift River Alpha Male. <b style="color:#0d5b8c; font-family:geogia; font-size:13px">"Oi!" He shouted out, hoping to catch Ozera's attention. <b style="color:#0d5b8c; font-family:geogia; font-size:13px">"Why are you in there polluting our water. You have your own damn river!"

<center><img src=http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z151/kittykarnage/fishmaster.png></center>

<blockquote>

Splashing about carelessly, Ozera did not notice the arrival of the stranger. But she did hear him. His voice, a lance, drove through the loud thoughts in her head and even louder splashing in her ears. Oi. She had to admit, that was a greeting that she had never heard before, and for some reason, it didn't sound too friendly. Whirling about wildly, throwing icy droplets all about her, the she-wolf turned to face the stranger. Ozera barely had any time to take him in before he hurled some pretty righteous sounding questions at her.

"Why are you in there polluting our water. You have your own damn river!"

Momentarily, she was dumbfounded, responding only with several long blinks. She could have sworn that this was an unclaimed part of Relic Lore. Deeply, she inhaled, her suspicions confirmed. Whatever she had done to upset this wolf was beyond her, but she shrugged it off. What did it matter? As far as she could see, she was doing nothing wrong — not even polluting. So instead, she laughed, wading through the creek over to the stranger to get a better look at him. "Oh, I'm sure there have been much worse things in this river besides me!" She thought of all the deer, the animals that must have waded through this water, tracking mud and dirt and who knows what else into the river. "I didn't know there was a pack farther downstream, though. I mean, logically you can't be from the mountains, since water doesn't exactly flow up hill."

At that moment, she beamed at him innocently. Even from here, she could smell the mountain wolves on him, and he obviously was assuming her to be a part of Swift River. However, she was unsure why this meant he felt he could take such a superior, controlling tone with her. The water ran down from the mountains. But there appeared to be so much more to this than water, she just had no idea what, and it confused her deeply. She hardly knew where to begin. So, instead she just laughed from behind her coy smile.</blockquote>

His greeting had not meant to sound friendly, technically it was not even a greeting - just a way of grabbing Ozera's attention for a moment so he could yell abuse at her. Normally Weldering was nothing like this but even since his feud with the Tainn males had begun his mind had been poisoned and now Swift River were the enemies. It was as though he was somehow going out of his way to cause problems for Indru even if it meant dragging innocent others like Ozera into the mess. Weldering moved closer to the bank, limbs locking firmly into place with his muscles tense and ears sliding back.

'Oh, I'm sure there have been much worse things in this river besides me!' Oh so she had a mouth on her too, well two could play at that game. <b style="color:#0d5b8c; font-family:geogia; font-size:13px">"You're right. Like Indru. Or Ruiko." Just saying their names made his ebony muzzle wrinkle up a little. Eyes for now kept fixed on the she-wolf in the creek waiting to see what her reaction would be, surely now it was becoming more clear why he did not like her... it was all because of a feud between a few boys. Strangely enough a feud that had all started because of girls, a misunderstanding and then being misled. How petty huh?

'I didn't know there was a pack farther downstream, though. I mean, logically you can't be from the mountains, since water doesn't exactly flow up hill.' Weldering at this point realised that she must have known about his own pack and recognized the scent he carried. That did however meant that she had met someone from Midnight Plateau and he was curious, who had she met? Though he doubted he would get an answer if he asked, besides he was too stubborn to even try. <b style="color:#0d5b8c; font-family:geogia; font-size:13px">"You're just like your leader, only thinking about yourselves, no regard for the lone wolves. When I was a lone wolf I couldn't do anything without him trying to boss me around like he owned the whole damn valley." He quipped, still looking over toward Ozera. <b style="color:#0d5b8c; font-family:geogia; font-size:13px">"Though joining a pack hasn't change a thing." Referring of course to his status within Midnight Plateau. <b style="color:#0d5b8c; font-family:geogia; font-size:13px">"I still get attacked in neutral territory. Don't you think it's only fair I return that favour to Swift River?" Weldering was not entirely sure he wanted to attack Ozera, it was a threat, sure. But he preferred to just rant and to try to make a point.

<center><img src=http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z151/kittykarnage/fishmaster.png></center>

<blockquote>Having spent a considerable length of time familiarising himself with Swift River's boundaries and everything in between, Marsh had felt it appropriate to extend his feelers a little. As comforting as he had quickly found having a definitive line between home and everywhere else, it was a line easily crossed for the sake of that home.

It didn't matter that Marsh barely knew any of the inhabitants by face, yet. It seemed like wolves here were strange and kept to themselves a lot, though he had, at the very least, glimpsed them all. Of course, he didn't need a clear line of sight to learn all he could about them. From the small snippets of themselves that lingered wherever they had been, Marsh had been able to learn a great, great deal about all of those in his new pack. All that was left was the formal introductions, as it were, and the wolf really didn't think too highly of those.

Thus, Marsh recognised Ozera's scent when he came across it, leading out of the pack's lands. It was far from the first time that he had noticed a packmate leaving the borders, but this time, he felt a vague inclination to follow. Perhaps it was mostly due to his desire to finally meet the other wolves he now shared a home with, but he did not ponder it too long; nose to the ground every now and then, just to ensure he was on the right path, Marsh took off, loping steadily after her recent trail. It soon became clear that she had not ventured very far, and the sound of voices pricked up his ears and hurried him onwards. The hint of another familiar body did not go unnoticed, but Marsh felt vaguely alarmed by the intonations ahead, and was silently grateful for his impulse to follow.

How amusing that the threat turn out to be the first wolf Marsh had ever met in these lands, of whom he had harboured a faint respect and liking. How amusing that Marsh find himself predisposed to side with the wolf he had never really been introduced to. Still, as the copper wolf entered the scene, his silver eyes switching carefully and periodically between the fur-soaked female and the familiar dark male, he felt himself slightly indecisive. His mind carried back to that day, his first day, and he recalled the topic that he and Weldering Darksidy had made conversation over. Finding a pack, and - hah! Marsh faintly remembered his disinterest of Swift River, and, coupled with the familiar smell of a foreign pack on Weldering, realised they were rivals, of a sort.

Still, Marsh held no animosity towards his old acquaintance, and was not about to make rash leaps of judgement. Stopping by the water's edge, nearer to where Ozera was if only due to having followed her trail, Marsh dipped his head in a warm acknowledgement of Weldering before assuming a more wary expression and pose. Ozera, as his superior, deserved a similar greeting, but Marsh was unsure if she even knew of his existence; the deference could wait until he better understood the situation. As for the tension clear in the air, well, he had caught the last few pieces of their exchange, and it sounded like Weldering's aversion had grown into something stronger.</blockquote>

<blockquote><ul>forgive me, this is all over the place. :x</li></ul>

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Wait. Did he just say I was like Ruiko? The sentiment, coupled with that not-so-flattering wrinkled face, was all too much for Ozera. At first it trickled out as a giggle, and she tried to stop it, since she figured it was pretty rude —to Ruiko, and this fellow who she just couldn't take seriously— but pretty soon what had begun as a rivulet became a torrent. Suddenly Ozera was on the ground, rolling in a rich bed of mirth, trying to cough out a response but finding she lacked the breath. "Oh please! Please," she managed finally, taking another pause for laughter, "Me like Ruiko?" Ozera remembered her encounter with the stoic gargoyle vividly. It had to be some sort of joke to say that she was like that rock. At least, that's what Ozera took it as.

As the stranger continued, Ozera tried very hard to keep her laughter under control. Honestly, she was trying. Except, when he said things like "no regard for the lone wolves," and "boss me around," she had to admit that she had been less than discreet about her humor. Why, hadn't she been a lone wolf over half of her life? Ozera couldn't recall bossing anyone, lone wolf or pack wolf, around in her life. Where does this guy get this stuff? But wait. Suddenly catching the last half of his speech, she was inexplicably struck with a lance of confusion. Maybe he wasn't joking. Attacked? Return the favor? This was deeply upsetting.

Gradually, she began to sort out the information, riffling through her memories of Indru and Ruiko. And this wolf was saying they had attacked him in neutral territory? Surely he was mistaken. Don't be dumb, Ozera. You don't mistake those things. Okay, okay. Except every conclusion she reached was a dead end. They were —or at least Indru was— her friends! They were nice, upstanding wolves. Surely... surely. She tried to shrug it off, shrug it all off. However, shrugging off these thoughts was much harder than just saying "don't sweat the small stuff," as she had before. Oh, this was too complicated! She longed to run away and forget it all, but figured that was probably the wrong thing to do. Desperately, she searched for something to say.

"... I. But. I never hurt you. Getting... revenger or whatever it is you want... on me. That doesn't solve anything. That doesn't make you any better than them." That was true enough, or at least, she thought it might be. Except Indru and Ruiko were good wolves. Everyone was good. Everyone had good in them, Ozera was sure of it. But there was only one truth to the situation. There was always a wrong and a right, right? So then which is it.

Mentally, her senses prodded her, rousing her from her inner turmoil. Ozera, they whispered, Ozera, there's someone behind you. The familiar smell of her new homelands greeted her nose. Cautiously, she swung her head around, hoping with all her heart it wouldn't be someone like Indru. Boy, that would have just confounded the whole damn thing even more. It wasn't Indru, though. Instead, she saw a face that came without a name at first. Well, it was there, floating in the back of her mind, but right now she was so confused he hardly bothered looking for it. At the moment, she was more concerned with what she was supposed to think, to say, to do. The presence of a pack member, someone else who knew Indru, only made it worse. Her eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them, deeply moved by her bewilderment and relocated to a place of silence.

They can't both be innocent. </blockquote>

(This post was last modified: Mar 20, 2011, 11:20 PM by Ozera.)