Stonewatch Timbers dancing with daylight

OOC notes: anyone is free to jump in! <3

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With so much travelling, it was easy for the scenery of different areas to start blurring together in his memory. One patch of grass looked pretty darn close to another patch of grass and that tree looked like that tree over there or that one he'd passed miles ago, except maybe that one was bent... At this point, he wasn't too sure, but somehow, some way... This seemed different. It appeared he'd finally stumbled upon a forest or woods of some sort, rises and drops in the terrain seemingly all around.

His ears twitched at a rumble in his stomach and he tipped his nose to the air, giving a couple sniffs. He had wondered often in his travels if he would've been better staying behind with the pack, but the thought crossing his mind again made his ears twitch back again in something like unease and a little frown tugging at his lips.

No, there wouldn't have been a pack to stay with for much longer, if he had to pitch an educated guess at the wind for the matter. Father had been struggling with keeping it together and Ma had all but lost her mind in her grief and that sort of weakened leadership invited trouble from within and without. Of course, some would probably ask why he hadn't bid his time away staying there to take over himself in that case, but it was a simple matter of that not being within Sindri's interests. It was, perhaps, something his brother would have done if he hadn't been killed, but Sindri would've worried then, too. He almost would've had to stick around if that happened, as proven by the way his brother had died. He would've needed an adviser, a level-headed voice of reason that wouldn't go charging off on blind emotion. Then again, they'd tried that and he still had. Brynja, their sister, on the other hand, had been in no shape to lead. She had become a ghost of herself after that hunting accident and Sindri had barely heard a word out of her since before she'd left on said hunt.

The male gave a full-length shake to rid his mind of the thoughts. If he truly doubted any part of his decision to leave, it was the fact that he hadn't brought his sister with him. He supposed it would have been nice to believe that a change of scenery could've maybe helped her instead of her staying with Ma and Father and the brewing turmoil in the pack, but he had traveled way too far to turn back now to retrieve her. Plus, there were no guarantees about what he'd find if he went back now.

That thought was probably the worst of all and, despite the pretty amicable temperature, he almost swore he felt a chill seep through his pelt and into his bones because of it. With that, the male pushed on at a light trot. He needed to find food - food and probably shelter.

He'd pushed on through territory after territory for long enough. It was time to start thinking about finding a place to call home, finding a pack, if he could. Perhaps the thing he'd missed most of all was the comfort of his sister curled up against him, both of them watching the stars and drawing designs in them with the tips of their claws until they couldn't keep their eyes open any longer.

Yes, he did indeed miss it, but the past was the past. There was no use dwelling on it now. The focus needed to be on the now and the future or he wouldn't be around to dwell on or remember it for long. Such was how life worked.

(This post was last modified: Jun 16, 2016, 04:37 PM by Sindri.)

They were hunted for their demons. They were tricked and played until they had no cards left to play, and that was how the world worked. Lilya still wasn’t certain that she should have trusted Ruenna’s word and just rolled over to believe that her family was dead, destroyed by the enemy during the war… but she’d run when everyone else had stayed. She was the coward and it didn’t quite sit well with her, a frown on her maw as she walked, a small expedition to see the surrounding territories to her new home. This was a home she refused to leave as easily as she had the last.

She refused to be a traitor, to abandon them when they’d opened their home and, in a way, even if they didn’t realize it, had helped her. She could still remember Kisla’s offer, and Lachesis’ words, trying to convince her that she didn’t have to live the life she’d been living, that she could have something else. That, above all else, had been what had drawn her to them, the familiar scents on the border for her to remember and call for. It was what had reminded the blue-eyed girl that there was still good in the world when all else failed.

But still, she needed to clear her head. She’d stuck close to the pack lands in the past, but now she was venturing outward more, scouting out everything around her… and she found herself in another forest – but this time it was different. This wasn’t the Kingsfall, and it didn’t take a lot to notice that to begin with. Her ears were perked, listening intently as her ocean eyes remained on a swivel, a kind appearance to her though she was still alert, and on edge.

Then there was a scent…and a wolf behind that scent. It was a loner’s scent at that, her nose differentiating between pack and loner with some ease as she quickly pushed her way through the terrain, head poking out from behind a tree as she spoke. “’ello thar!”

He didn't quite know what had pushed him to travel so far from where he'd grown up when doubts had still flowed through his mind about if he'd made the right decision. Perhaps to make sure he couldn't actually act on those doubts? And what made him think that maybe, after all of the distance his tired paws had carried him, he'd finally be able to stop soon?

With the amount of questions suddenly starting to plague his mind, he almost began to wonder how it was that he'd made it as far as he had as it was. Brynja, had she been well, would've wanted him to lead a full life; of that, he had zero doubt. He returned that wish for her, but he'd asked more times than he'd ever began counting if it'd been some sort of twisted kind of betrayal to leave her behind. He'd worried then and he worried now that the pack would see her as nothing more than a burden as their ranks began to unravel.

Hunger would do things to a wolf - certainly not pretty things. Even the most compassionate souls could be turned into something one might endeavor to call some sort of strange, unrecognizable monster when it came down to food. At the core, it was survival of the fittest in those situations.

But what a different way of thinking it was to that of pack life. Finding a pack willing to accept him would be a feat to tackle in its own right. Any wolf with a drop of common sense knew to stay away and respect a pack's territory, especially when little ones started appearing and tumbling around. Sindri was, of course, a loyal creature and a compassionate ones, but such things were just words when spoken. Loyalty was something to be earned, tested, and proven. To feel at home again would take time anywhere. After the time that had passed, the concept almost sounded foreign...

His thoughts quickly faded off when his ears perked to noise and his nose to scent, tension creeping into his muscles as he stopped, rather rigid, all senses straining forward and then a head poked out from behind a tree and, while the words didn't sound at all like any sort of threat, Sindri, while still standing, dropped his head a bit, ears attentive, but shoved forward aggressively, and giving a slight wag of his tail in greeting - all attempts to make sure he didn't appear as a threat. "Hello," he returned the greeting. "I'm not intruding or anything, am I?" He hadn't caught the scent of any clear border markings, but it didn't seem like she was a lone wolf. Her scent was more of something he would expect from a pack wolf. Then, of course, he understood privacy and that sometimes, that meant being away from others, so it was better safe than sorry.