Bramble Falls A Subtle Divide

<blockquote>It was hard to imagine what part was more difficult about this situation: the catching of the fish, or the tactful art of getting herself out of the situation. As it was, she stood, two paws perched on a solid foundation of rock, while the other two were now much wider apart from the others than they had originally started. The sodden log that these two were perched on had shifted, rending Vaeri in a rather harrowing situation of being much more spread eagled than she ever intended to be and possibly ending belly up in the lake, quite without the nice, fat, trout that was less than a foot beneath her. The other possibility was that she got her belly wet anyway and took at dive at the trout. Of course she wouldn’t be surprised if it was eyeballing her as much as she was him. He, after all, had a life at stake. She merely had a wet coat and a little dignity.

Deciding that she didn’t particularly want to end up without a meal and go home wet, she braced herself for the impact of when she would give a harried dive into the water and attempt to snatch the glossy creature beneath the surface. Of course, this didn’t go particularly as planned.

As she shifted her weight back in order to gain a brace to push off of, the back end of the log shifted in the loose silt once more. Unbalancing her, she attempted to steady herself quickly, only to find that her footing was lost and after a futile attempt to gain any sort of balance, she let out an a loud call. <b>"What the fu—"</b> Which was cut short by the abrupt entrance of water into her mouth.

She came up spluttering. Hacking in a way that suggested she was going to cough up a lung, she quickly scrambled to her feet, glaring around the area, as though to challenge any viewers to laugh at what they had just witnessed. She didn’t doubt the trout was, though at the moment it was nowhere to be seen. Sniffing quietly, she cast one more glance around before raising her muzzle with a heightened sense of wounded dignity and leapt nimbly onto the rock formation that she had previously been perched upon. And with a rather dejected flop, she flounced down on her belly, paws hanging over the low edge, imagining all the things she would very much like to do to the trout. </blockquote>

(This post was last modified: Aug 09, 2012, 04:05 PM by Vaeri.)

Shade watched the wolf from the shadows, he was adventuring after being accepted into the pack, still looking for Remy. The head Guardian. Elettra's second, Elettra looked highly at her and that put her high in Shade's book. When the wolf was in trouble, he rushed out of the shadows, <b>"Are you OK?"</b> He asked. Sure she was a lone wolf. But he was off pack territory and he wasn't helping her by catching her prey. No, he was seeing if she was OK. Not really against the pack.

He saw her hack her way to the surface. She looked like she was to hack up a lung. When she made it to her feet. He asked her again, <b>"Are you OK?"</b> He wasn't going to laugh at her, but the look given in her eyes suggested she was challenging him to laugh. Then she started acting like a trout. It was funny, but he held in his laugh. It was rude to laugh at another wolf, and he wasn’t without manners.

He sat down, watching intently, in a creeper like way, but the truth was, he was observing her odd, strange behaviors. They were like she wasn’t a wolf. She was, of course a wolf, her Grey, White, Black, and Rusty Brown coat gave that away. Why was she so strange. She was stranger then
Shadowstorm ever was. He held in a laugh still. <b>”What are you doing?”</b> He asked.

Somehow, this behavior had triggered a flashback of the night his parents were killed. IT was hard to remember. It hurt him. He hated things that hurt him from the inside. It was just torturous to know he caused the pain and it was weakness inside of him, that he couldn’t fight. That was because it was him.

<blockquote>Oh, the distractions. With all of her thrashing about in the water, facing away from the concerned on looker, she had failed to notice both his initial question and his presence. It was only as he repeated himself that she finally took note of his presence. Her sodden tail twitched next to her, heaving once in a physical show of it's water loaded distress before it lay miserably next to her. She stared at it for a moment before her gaze tuned to the wolf, ignoring the drips that rolled down her ears and around her face. Damn. She'd been seen. She seemed to contemplate his question for a moment, gaze removing itself from him and trailing the wet path that marked her leap from water to land. Thinking ruefully that there wasn't any blood in the mixture, she certainly supposed she <i>was</i> alright. No broken bones, no scrapes or gouges. Just an empty belly and wounded dignity. Her creamy gaze returned to him once more with a look that suggested her words didn't quite match their meaning.

<b>"I'm just peachy."</b>

She gave herself a moment, sighing inwardly, and then reigned herself back in. Of course, by the time this moment had passed and she had refocused, she was beginning to realize that the male was staring at her... and not looking away. At all. Her tail flipped involuntarily, slinging water through the air before it landed with a splat on the rock. She wasn't almost inclined to cross her eyes and look at her forehead to see if there was a gash she had missed in that area, but she restrained herself and kept her eyes level with him. They widened ever so slightly as her brow quirked. <b>"What are <i>you</i> doing?"</b> At this point, he pushed herself into a sitting position, gracefully I might add, and then after giving him an expectant look, stood up completely.

<b>"Well, in all seriousness, I've just had a run in with a trout and a log and combined, they seem to have bested me." </b> Her gaze shifted back to the water. <b>"Bastard."</b> She murmured, not intending for it be loud enough for the male to hear, though it was quite uncertain whether she referred to the trout or the log. Turning back, lip flattening from it's previous look of distaste, she spread her paws, speaking as she did so. <b>"Best step back, should you not wish to join my state of water logged fur."</b>

And she the shook from tip to tail, spraying water everywhere.</blockquote>

(This post was last modified: Aug 10, 2012, 04:29 PM by Vaeri.)

While Shade had never been to this region], he knew this was not normal behavior, but she explained herself. A damn trout and a dumb log. Made total sense to the eye of creativity and imagination. But unfortunately, Shade did not seem to have those realms in his mind. He was all for seriousness and justice. <b>"Well, it's very nice to meet you, I am Shade. A Subordinate of Willow Ridge pack, not necessarily near here, but close by."</b> His words careful, he was new to his pack, he didn’t want to give too much information away to lone wolves. It would be bad if Elettra found out he was adventuring out so far after joining. He’d better take extra patrols, maybe hunt a bit for the pack, even if he was a guardian. He had responsibilities.

The truth was that he was looking around for Copper Rock Creek territory. To visit his sister Shadowstorm . Nina had given very little information away to the brother of the injured wolf. But then again, Nina was a healer. Quite protective of her patient actually. <i> "Best step back, should you not wish to join my state of water logged fur." </i> Crap! Shade took a few paces back as she shook her fur dry. <b>”So what are you doing here at the falls?”</b> He asked, trying to make friendly conversation. He was one of the teaching: A wise and strong warrior, has many friends in many places. He smiled a bit. This wolf was strange. Interesting more like it.

<blockquote>Oh, how she relished it. It started from the tip of her nose, a quivering that turned quickly into shaking, and moved down her body until her whole coat swayed back and forth, flinging water everywhere. While she was still damp and probably would be for some time, she didn't mind. It was the weight of the water that bothered her, not the wetness. As she stilled, a smile crept across her lips, unconscious, as though she had just eaten the prime piece of deer over the rest of the pack. The small joys in life were what kept her going. Frilly as a porpentine, her eyes opened and her gaze slid back to the male. <b>It's quite nice to meet you as well, Shade.</b> She moved then, leaping down from the ledge, seating herself near the bottom of the ledge as she did so.

<b>"I'm Vaeri Rein. A wandered of my own accord."</b> She flashed him a bright smile.

She looked around at the falls with his next question. It was quite a beautiful little niche in the world and it was very true that she had taken leave of her birth pack in order to find her own place. There had been no chaos in her life that hadn't been caused by her, and her leave had been peaceful, if a bit teary for those who cared for her. But she had been ready to discover what lay beyond the peaceful little ridge that she had spent her first year and a half of life. This was the first area that she had taken note of any real packs, and mostly this was due to the fact that Shade had just mentioned that there was one around. While she knew what to look for in regards to a pack border, she had never really ventured too close to one and thus not encountered too many other wolves. There had been a few, but in the six or so months that she had been gone, Vaeri had spent little time in the company of others wolves. She had plenty to do with traversing new lands, focusing on her hunting skills, and all the general melee that went along with traveling. She had had very little time to become lonely. Even so, the presence of Shade was a welcome difference.

<b>"Well, I was fishing. I planned to catch a nice fat trout, sit on my bum and eat it, and then lay about like a little fat pup until I had digested enough to move."</b> She never did have much success with activity after a meal. Once she got something in her stomach, she was generally slap on the floor the second she swallowed her last bite. <b>"As for what I'm doing <i>here</i>,"</b> she moved her head in an all encompassing circle that was intended to represent Relic Lore, <b>"I'm just traveling. Seeing what's out there beyond <i>the ridge</i>."</b> The last two words were spoken with a dramatic flip, and had Shade been from the same place as she, he likely would have gotten the inside joke. As it was, her lip tugged upward with an inward smile at the play on words for her home. The ridge had been anything but dramatic. </blockquote>

(This post was last modified: Aug 11, 2012, 04:09 PM by Vaeri.)

Shade didn't quite understand the inside joke, but he chuckled a slight bit. <b>"Well it's very nice to meet you Vaeri. CAn I help you with anything?"</b> He said, a flashback commenced right then and he looked a bit zoned out.

Shade was born in a small litter, 2 pups. Him and his sister Shadowstorm. They lived together with their parents for a few months but then, a small group of lone wolves attacked the den. They killed his parents, but spared his life and his sisters. Luckily, he learned how to hunt already from his father, and he had taught his sister all he knew. He started out, knowing his sister was alive, togo looking for Shadowstorm, who had ran away from the scene thinking he was dead as well. He is a firm believer that pack members are weak. But that belief is deteriorating in him. He is starting to contradict himself and that is when he decides to make a move he;s never done before. It's 'weakening him' he thinks because he is sick of a lonely life. He wants a pack now, but he keeps his thoughts in check as he continues forward, hoping for a strong will power to hold him off until he finds Shadowstorm, his sister.

Then the last memory haunted him. Before he came to the Relic Lore, he encountered a wolf name Ari. She started rambling on about how she wanted to be in a pck and he got mad. He attacked and mauled her. Leaving a nice big scar on the back of the small fae. But of course he regrets it because she was no bigger then a pup. But the nightmare will last. Hopefully no one would need to know of that though.

<blockquote>She looked over at the water at his question, head tilted down as she looked through the current of the stream. There were small movements, nothing more than the stirring of silt from the bottom and minnows darting around, neither of which she could eat with any sort of ease. Well, she could eat the silt if she was really hungry, she supposed. But there was the matter of what that would do to her digestive tract, and she wasn't really curious enough to find out. Having been ousted of her meal by a log, she was still rather hungry, but she supposed it could wait. She wasn't really in the mood to find another fish and then take the time to aim herself accordingly. Perhaps she would give it another shot later. Well, she most definitely would. She was hungry after all.

<b>"Nah, not at the moment. I'll have another go at fishing later, I think. But for now I'll just hang out here for a bit."</b> She looked back over at him, taking his physical appearance for what seemed like the first time.

He was nice to look at, with his big yellow eyes and stark, dark brown face. Of course his coat lightened from there. He was larger than her, sure, but that was usual for her in encountering other wolves. She wondered vaguely just how he would fare in a fight between them. Of course she didn't have any desire to up and bite his face off, but a friendly spar wasn't something she would pass up on if it was offered. Her gaze returned to him. <b>"What about you? Where are you from?"</b> She paused for a moment. <b>"Need any help'</b> Grin. </blockquote>

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j347/holdbacktherain/sets/shadetable.png) bottom center no-repeat; background-color: #c7b49b;"> Shade looked a tad confused at her. Then it hit him, she must just be asking random questions. <b style="color:#8e989d">"I'm from a pack. Willow Ridge, I'm just exploring really. I don't need any help." He said calmly, being more polite then usual to this particular lone wolf. A sudden hunger burned into him, he'd have to hunt soon. But he could do that for the pack when he got back. Reed had offered, if there was any time he would want to hunt, to find the second and they would hunt together. Reed was the nicer of the two seconds. Shade couldn't help noice that he was being studied by the smaller fae. Odd, what reason would she have to study him? Probably because she's new here maybe? A loners life did not encounter many wolves outside of Relic Lore. Man, Shade hoped she wasn't solitary because Relic Lore was wolfs galore! Though this particular region he thought to be more fallow. (This is short, so sorry. Trying to word it more but it just turned out short!)

table by bryony

(This post was last modified: Aug 13, 2012, 01:01 PM by Shade.)

<blockquote>Apparently her irony was lost on him. Her nose wrinkled slightly in disappointment before she moved on with her thoughts. Some were able to roll with her humor and some weren’t. While the grin disappeared from her lips, a light smile remained in its place, more as a place marker than anything. As it was, she was finding it more and more difficult to find something to talk about, which was quite a feat for Vaeri. While she wasn’t necessarily the type to chat your ear off, she was the type to chat her own ear off. Meaning, of course, that she kept herself quite occupied in her own antics She didn’t necessarily need others around to find herself amused, even if she did enjoy the company. Often speaking her thoughts out loud, no matter whether there was someone around to hear it or not, she reverted to those tendencies as what she found to be an awkward silence filled the air. He didn’t need any help, after all.

She found herself staring into the depths of the water, watching the silt pull with the current again. <b>I wonder, the difference between living under water… what if you were a fish?</b> Her gaze popped suddenly back to Shade again, watching intently for his response. While a rather… abrupt change of pace, it was a serious question. She was very much into discussing the queries of life. What ifs were a favorite. But then, she also had quite an imagination when it came down to it.
</blockquote>

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j347/holdbacktherain/sets/shadetable.png) bottom center no-repeat; background-color: #c7b49b;"> "I wonder, the difference between living under water… what if you were a fish?" Now this weird and wolf wanted to talk about the purpose of life and the feeling of others. This was the strangest thing that had ever happened to him. Even after talking to Kyrie and Shadowstorm at the same time. Boy, that one ended weird for sure. Shade was a creative and reasonable one so he gave a shot at an answer. <b style="color:#8e989d">"Maybe it's not so different from wolves and our air. It appears they need water to survive. Maybe our air is equivalent to they're water." He suggested kindly. She was still weird in his book. But at least she was reasonable. It reminded him of his painful, scarring history. Shade was born to an unknown line of Lone Wolves. The Slayer wolves. His father ruthless, crueld and mean. When he started training Shade and his sister Shadowstorm how to survive the cold world. He used his first lesson: Packs are weak, bottomfeeding losers that couldn't take care of themselves, so they hung together and shared food. He told Shade never to join a pack. Shade was an idealistic child. He had reason and said that wolves would be stronger in numbers. His father attacked him, leaving no permenant scars, but the emotional trama to get it stuck into his head. This went on for a year or so, his mother kept begging his father to stop, claiming they were children, they didn't know better. It got worse as it happened. His father started to beat her too. It was gruesome to watch. He was out on a final hunting assignment. Returned early with two hares for the family. He came to the sight of his parents fighting a group of two or three lone wolves. Out of fright, he ran for his life. Hoping his sister made it out alive too, he began to search for her. He searched everywhere far and wide for a long 4 years. He finally came and arrived here, in Relic Lore.

table by bryony