Blackberry Fields break apart pt. 1

Oula dragged her stout limbs through the snow, each step feeling as heavy as if she had rocks tied to her paws. More and more the mother felt like a failure. She hadn't been overly concerned the first night Joan failed to return, writing it off as childish adventurousness and sure the girl would be back by daybreak. But as one day turned to another, and the moon started to grow fat again, it became clear to Oula that her firstborn child was simply gone. Her heart wrenched painfully at the possibilities, that Joan had gotten lost, or hurt. Or perhaps Joan felt so little attachment to her home that she simply left it behind. Whatever it was, she couldn't help but feel responsible for it.

However, Oula couldn't lay idly by and lament her failures as a parent. It was hard to pick a trail to follow, as of course evidence of Joan lay everywhere within the cedarwood. She arbitrarily picked a direction, setting off and hoping she was going the right way. She walked listlessly, not really seeing the scenery. Occasionally she tilted her head back to release a thin, reedy howl for her daughter. Again and again she called, but received nothing in return, only the sound of the cold wind through the berry brambles.

(This post was last modified: Feb 05, 2017, 05:51 AM by Oula.)

@Deacon Up to you if you wanna be here or not :)

Balthazar was tucked into a little nook he'd dug out beneath a tangle of blackberry, sleeping quite peacefully into the morning until his rest was disturbed by a distant noise. His beady yellow eyes peeked open as he lay still, listening quietly. He couldn't quite tell what it was at first, but it grew louder as the minutes passed... Whatever it was, it was coming closer. Eventually he could tell it was howling, of the most wretched sort. Some sad sap crying her heart out for someone. Balthazar's ears folded back as he grimaced, his pink tongue poking through jagged teeth in disgust. Holy hell that woman could sure make a racket. 

Slowly the beast rose from his nest, shaking the frost from his coat. He managed to clean the look of annoyance from his face, maintaining a somewhat neutral look as he sought out the banshee. She certainly wasn't hard to find with all the noise she was making. Joan, Joan, Joan. Looking for a female, then. Well, clearly Joan wasn't here. Daft woman.

Paws bouncing over the snow and tail swishing, he approached the female. One of those thuggish valley wolves, but strangely stunted in size. "Morning, miss," He gruffly greeted her, secretly gritting his teeth. "Can I help you? You looking for someone?" He asked bluntly. Helping was the furthest thing from his mind.

Deacon had become even more closed off if that was possible. While he liked his company, Azar, the recent news had him in a constant state of bitterness. He would eventually need to address that he now had someone to go after but he needed the right time. The right words even because "Oh I need to go hunt my youngest brother and torture him." didn't sound too nice.

He hadn't slept close to the still strange male. He had instead made his own little den to tuck himself into. A flood of nightmares haunted him so he was unsure if that wailing he heard was from himself or some nearing danger. He snapped awake the more frequent he got with the realization that this was not him nor was it Azar. The shrill howls sent him out into the cold. Agitation obvious on his face. He wasn't pleased to see that the woman had awoken Azar either. With a groan, Deacon followed after his traveling company.

The dark man hung out in the background like a lingering shadow. He made sure to be close enough to hear any conversation but not right in the scene. A brow raised slightly at Azar's kindness in this situation. Deacon knew that if he had reached the woman first she would not have been met with such an offer of help or even the title of miss.

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So wrapped up in her own grief, Oula didn't notice the sound of paws crunching through snow towards her. Sage eyes cast upward, she was listening for something else. A voice that didn't call back to her. She was supposed to protect her children, she thought that now that she had returned, she could start to set things right. But now it seemed she wouldn't have that chance. Was Joan safe? Was she comfortable? A small whine seeped from her pale lips. She was old enough that she could survive on her own, but Oula knew what was out there... It wasn't a safe world to be out alone in.


It was only when he spoke that Oula noticed the presence of the other wolf. Her head whipped around, widened eyes settling on a beady eyed, auburn coated male. He looked friendly enough, and seemed to have noticed her howling. Suddenly, she felt embarrassed, this wasn't her proudest moment. But she had to swallow down her pride, Joan was somewhere out there.

Oula turned to face him. "Yes, actually," She started. "I'm looking for my daughter, Joan. She went missing, about a week ago. She's young, not even a year old yet, but about the same size as me, silver eyes. Her coat is nearly like mine, just a little darker..." She continued faintly, looking pleadingly at the stranger, praying he had seen a glimpse of her. She finally noticed, just over the auburn wolf's shoulder was a surprisingly familiar face. Her brows lifted in surprise. "Deacon?" She couldn't be too annoyed at the male's sudden departure from the pack. He knew Joan, he would know if he'd come across her.

It seemed the woman was so out of it, she didn't even react until he said something. That was a good way to get killed out here, walking around like there was cotton stuffed in her ears. Balthazar pretended to listen to the description she gave of her daughter, nodding along with it. Hell, it sounded like the whelp looked like just about any other wolf in Relic Lore. Grey. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. If that was the way she was going about it, she'd never find her. A pleasing thought. 

There was something uncannily familiar about the female, but he couldn't quite place his paw on it. His curiosity was piqued, the cat would have to find out more before before he toyed with his mouse. By some strange coincidence, it seemed the valley wolf knew Deacon. Whether on good or bad terms, he couldn't tell. He shot a glance back towards the younger wolf behind him, before settling his attention back on the mother wolf. He'd have to tread carefully until he had this figured out.

"I have, actually!" He remarked. "A day or so away from here. Pretty sure it was her at least. She fit the description." He said, giving her just a little bit to pique her interest. "I remember the spot, too. She was playing in a stream. I can't say I'm familiar enough with the landscape to give you directions, though." He said with a sigh. 

"But I remember the way there, it's about a day's travel from here. I can take you there, if you'd like?" He offered, swishing his tail in some semblance of neighborly good will.

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

He should have realized who it was. The scent and the look. He simply brushed it off as mere coincidence until she had spoken his name. A frown grew across his face at the sound of Joan being gone. While he was never close to her, in particular, but he didn't wish for her to vanish. "Oula, I'm deeply sorry to hear Joan is gone." His voice was genuine with his apology. He held no ill will towards her despite her relations.

Deacon stared at Azar as he spoke about seeing the girl. Well, he'd be damned. "I'd take his word. Not exactly sure how much that means to you, though." He nodded softly and stepped forward some to make himself more present. "I'll go along too if you don't mind?" His eyes lingered on the lone mother. "Figure the more eyes the better." He shrugged rather nonchalant. Deacon didn't have it in him to try and pull a smile to comfort Oula or even lace some sort of care in his words.

The dark male had no idea that Azar had run into the child, though. If it had been himself in that position he might have ushered her to go home. Alas, that was not the case here. Instead, Joan seemed to be M.I.A and Oula was out here alone looking. Why didn't Veho or even Nineva go with her? He wanted to scoff at how lazy the others must be to send her alone out into the winter to find a child but instead held his feelings inside.

(This post was last modified: Feb 05, 2017, 03:37 AM by Deacon.)

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Oula felt like she could sob with joy. He'd seen her, somewhere nearby, no less. From the sounds of it, she wasn't in danger, or at least hadn't been when the man had last seen her. The questions bubbled up to the surface again. Why had Joan left? Was she just bored? Unhappy? Why couldn't she at least told her, or said goodbye. Did she have plans on returning? There was too much to think about, too much she wanted to ask her daughter now. But she had to find her first, and so far all she had to go on was that this wolf seemed to think he'd seen her, or someone who looked like her. She couldn't get too ahead of herself, and get her hopes too high.

Deacon seemed to trust this wolf, however he had run into him. It seemed Oula too would have to place her trust in the stranger as well. The mother shook her head to rid the watery feeling in her eyes, breathing deeply to steady herself. "Oh please, if it wouldn't be any trouble for you two. Take me to where you saw her." She pleaded. 

"I promise I'll make it up to you, somehow. Whether we find her or not, I can't let such a favor go unpaid," She vowed. It would mean the world to her if they did find her. 

(This post was last modified: Feb 05, 2017, 04:07 AM by Oula.)

"Of course," Balthazar said with a dip of his head. "We'll go right now. The day is still young, should be there by nightfall." He assured her. He resisted rolling his eyes at her promise of a reward. When was that ever not a fat stack of lies? It was just one of those things that you offered without really meaning. He was sure if by some freak accident they actually did come across the woman's daughter, she'd have no trouble skipping off with her spawn and forgetting about him, leaving him empty handed.

"Sure, no skin off my back," Balthazar shrugged easily as Deacon asked if he could go. It didn't matter to him, as long as Deacon didn't get in the way. He was sure that in this case, no amount of extra eyes would help. He'd never seen the girl, Joan, before. To be honest, at her age she was probably frozen to death somewhere, or trampled by a deer in youthful stupidity. Valley wolves were as dumb as rocks, they weren't terribly hard to kill and seemed to have no trouble walking into their own deaths if left to their own devices, anyways.

In any case, Balthazar started off. He had no fucking clue where the girl was and frankly didn't give a shit, but that didn't mean he didn't have a destination in mind. "Oula, is it?" He asked as he walked, having heard Deacon speak the name moments earlier. "I'm Azar. Azar Hawke." He introduced himself, finding wolves tended to be more cooperative when they had a name to go off of. How easily these fools placed their trust.

He let Azar do the talking since he wasn't directly addressed by the Hollow wolf. It seemed everyone was in agreeance to go now. The auburn man's words had been true. Deacon wasn't sure what exact creek he had possibly seen Joan by but anything was worth a shot at this rate. Winter wasn't kind to anyone, especially those young ones who managed to get lost.

Deacon was glad that his company agreed to let him go. Perhaps it would ease his restless mind for the day to wander in the company. In his mind, he still saw his younger brother in a submissive puddle on the ground crying about the deaths. Sleep hadn't come to him easy last night but he felt no need to retreat to the disposable den he had made for the night either.

Bright eyes watched as Azar introduced himself before taking the lead. The dark male was content to trail behind but still close enough to feel somewhat involved. He would keep silent unless Oula felt the need to talk for he already knew that the auburn Azar was content to travel in silence. If she had any questions he would try his best to answer them even if he didn't exactly have all the answers.

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