Ghastly Woods We Left

We left our hearts, somewhere in the stars. We left our lives, floating in the night. We left our hearts, somewhere in the stars. We left our lives, floating in the night... We left our hearts... We left our Lives... The large, well fed tawny wolf strode forwards with purpose, with no fear of who may hear her approach. She was leaving a path of destruction in her wake as she desperately searched for any hint of him. Her heart had pined for her lost mate, but despite all her searching, he was nowhere to be found. When she had last seen him... It tore at her fragile heart, and so she had rebuilt the walls that had kept her safe on the other side of the mountain. She knew better now. Love left you weak. Perhaps she was too late to get her answers. Perhaps in his crazed state he had picked a fight with the wrong wolf? But she had to know. Athena's words haunted her, waking and asleep. Had he truly murdered their daughter? She needed to know. He had said Gone. Maybe it was in his own best interests to stay that way too, should her worst fears be confirmed. Perhaps he was dead. The dense trees embraced her as she moved effortlessly beneath their protective canopy. The mountain still tugged at her, calling her home... but she needed time to get away. She needed to figure out exactly what she was going to do, now that she was home, and now that there were certain members of the pack she struggled to tolerate. It wasn't her place to throw them out. Yet. The atmosphere of the woods about her suited her dark mood perfectly. She could no longer stand the dismissive glances of her pack mates, she would never grovel to that nut from the night Datura had wandered. She wanted to tear off his smug face, and given half a chance, she gladly would. She lashed out at a straying branch, grasping it tightly between powerful jaws and giving the tree a good shake, releasing her frustrated growl into the silent forest. She was an animal, in all her savage glory. Sometimes she missed being a loner. Subconsciously, she had worked her way back to the place where they had first met. The first place she had chosen to make a den. Here, they had hunted boar together... Here, she had laid awake at night, wondering about the dark stranger, and somehow she had known they were doomed from the start. Why had she come here?

(This post was last modified: Nov 10, 2012, 11:32 AM by Naira.)

And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

A big-boned wolf effortlessly moved through the forest. He had no need to fear the darkness around him. He belonged there, in the silence and fateful agelessness of the haunted trees that grew arms and reached for him. He swiped his pink tongue over his chops, only another bulk in the dark. He had just run-in with a silvery man, much afraid by these haunted whispers; lost and confused. The stranger had gone in circles for countless hours from the afternoon to midnight. It was actually saddening, but very much amusing simultaneously. Tenzin perked his ears with the call of a buzzard. Something died, he thought, those birds were drawn to the very scent of death. Calmly, he pushed on, wondering how far this forest could go. It seemed like it was a longer journey backwards than forwards, though that was not how Ten remembered it. But he was only in the center of the exciting adventure. Much more to go, guaranteed.

As the brute walked, his mind floated off to his brother, anger flooding his every raspy, dark breath. His pitiful brother who seemed to have no sense of his bravado or ignorance to the fact he was nothing but a mutt who can't keep his mouth shut. In their past talk, he and Kamota had come to an armistice. If Tenzin could make allies acting like himself, Kamota would take everything back. He had taken the deal. He shook out his pelt and gloomily trotted forward. A shape moved in the distance. It moved with purpose, unlike the shadows of birds and forever lost fawns. It was another wolf, hopefully not trapped like the many others lurking here. He had enough saving other wolves this week.

Tenzin lifted his maw in his/her general direction. Jupitus was watching over him; he knew this because of the warming gaze he thought he felt on his fur that kept him moving, The scent was foggy and flowery. A female's scent. He felt a sense of protection washed over him. It was an instinct he had adopted as he grew up with a younger sister and a partner-in-crime. His cracked, aching paws slowly grazed the ground while the big male forced himself into silent pawsteps. The female grabbed onto the branch and let out a roar, tearing a tree's arm off violently. His gray, white, and red ears perked with newfound curiosity. He decided to watch her woman for a few minutes until she began looking at a little hole in the ground. The den looked unimportant to Ten, just like any other hole in the dirt.

Finally, he got the urge to move. He couldn't, for he was frozen in confusion. Why was this den so important to her? It looked abandoned. If it had been her current den, she would be putting a cache into it, caring for pups, or she would quit staring at it like a love-stricken puppy. That was when Tenzin's muscles moved into action. He stood and moved his bedraggled body towards her, not stopping until he could see her clearly. He did not sit but instead raised his tail dominantly. His fur bristled, and stayed that way. But he kept his mouth shut. He couldn't growl until he learned her motives for wandering around at dawn in a haunted forest. "So, are you going to propose mateship with that den or what?" Tenzin cackled. His voice was gravelly, rocky, raspy...much like you'd here if you met a viking. But instead of having that giant-with-a-soft-heart kind of ring, it had a mocking way to it.

Can you imagine what it might have felt like, like that moment when you first opened up those eyes? Like the moment when a Wright brother first took flight, as if to show the non-believers what a dream looks like? She could feel someone watching her. Not with the same quiet, welcoming regard as the dense trees, no. This set her hackles on edge. Her nostrils flared as she took in the scent of the stranger just beyond the trees and her large ears swiveled, attempting to pin-point the brute. She did not feel fear, nor even anger. She did not know this scent. He was not the one she sought. At his words her large head swung, taking in his dominant posture she matched it with one of her own. It wasn't so much a challenge as a warning. Most of her scars were hidden by her thick winter coat, but that didn't remove the glint of danger from her eyes. She was not afraid to be exactly what she was born to be. Predator. His mocking words bought a smirk to her face. "Just wondering if I left something here, all those months ago..." she responded smoothly, cryptically with her melodic voice as she lowered her tail to a more neutral position. If he was going to attack her he should have been smart enough to do so already. Now he had lost the element of surprise, and though he was probably a year younger than she was, he didn't look that stupid. With a deep breath and a small sigh she confirmed. He had not been here... but perhaps she had stumbled across something even more interesting. She allowed her eyes to freely roam over the wolf before her. She was large for a fae, and he even towered over her. From his split ear to the scar on his chest, it was obvious he was no stranger to fighting. Her curiosity piqued. Perhaps she could find a purpose for this wolf after all. The cogs were turning in her mind as her expression projected quiet disregard. She was not going to pretend in front of this one that she was sorry, or scared. She would not drag her belly along the floor, nor endure disproving stares. No. He was proud, evident in the way he held himself. Perhaps as proud as her. Maybe, there was an ally to be found here, after all. She couldn't carry off her master plan alone. "Hm." she hummed with a smile and a puff. "Are you lost?" she questioned with a hint of a tease. Internally, she was full of tinkling laughter, she had been working for far too long. Let's play for once, and see what happens...

“”

Deciding whether to trust or credit a person is always an uncertain task.

Tenzin Laylani was no saint, nor was he a sinner. He had a sense of right and wrong, and he wasn't the worst guy on earth. But he was a monster, made by his loved one's manipulation and his own impulsive ways. His gray and red pelt mustered its way into the light. His liquid orange eyes searched the tawny, golden eyed she-wolf before him in the little bit of daylight shining through the canopy. She seemed to be prideful in herself, confident. A wolf that Jupitus would approve of, he thought. His eyes shone curiously, and he tilted his head. The monster in him was to be awoken soon. Jupitus was going to make him show it. "The name's Tenzin."

The big male snarled with her mention to what seemed like her past. She had said she was here to see what was left in the den; therefore, she was still hanging on to her seemingly to-be-spilled biography. "Sorry, but If I was you, I would stop holding on to your past, mutt." The enormous, tower of muscle growled, not caring what happened at this point. He felt strongly on his words. His own used-to's have come back to haunt them. Even though they were still strangers, he didn't want the same for her.

He could see her scars she bore, which most were covered by her thick fur. That close, the wounds weren't that hard to notice. Tenzin bared his teeth and lifted his upper lip. "I can tell, you're here for something other than just looking for lost items. You're looking for something more. Tell me what it is." Tenzin muttered, shaking his head. He cooled down slowly. He had no control over his twisting and turning anger. But lately, things hadn't been going his way. so it was rough and there was a reason for his teeth to come out and threaten to break skin.

I guess thats right brother, all too right, Cos theres too few left who can carry the light. If we all shed our wings at the turn of the night, too afraid that if we jump we might touch the sky... He didn't answer her question, merely responded with questions of his own. The brute was rude, but that she could bare. It was stupidity that broke her patience and bought forth the gnashing, snarling beast. She took note of his name, but held back on offering her own just yet. She was still yet to determine if the man would be useful. It wasn't with intention that she had come to this particular section of the Ghastly Woods, although it made sense since she knew it best. "But the past is what shapes us, and if we don't look to it on occasion we run the risk of making the same mistakes again... and that friend is pure stupidity." she retorted, almost serenely given her prior fit of rage. It had been a long time since she had encountered a loner without having to worry about her son. It was refreshing to only need to think of herself. When he demanded answers, she pretended not to hear at first. For honestly, she wasn't certain why she had come here to start with. "Solomon's Seal, White Fir, Ginger..." Rhysis... she left the last unmentioned, the wolf who had been her mate was gone. Whether or not he still lived somewhere within the crazed beast that she had encountered was yet to be determined. Regardless, she would do all she must to get her children through the winter and if that meant stocking the medicinal caches for both hers and Chantille's use then she would do so. Her toes shifted in the soft earth, so unlike the rocky ground of the mountain. The earthy scents of rotting bark and leaves sung to her of a home long left and the whisper of the wind through the trees was almost like a half heard song to the tawny wolf. Nature never ceased to amaze her. "Mostly, just a chance to get away. Things have changed... and I am yet to determine a course of action. It's easier to think when you don't have to contend with the clattering jaws of the self-important." Her thoughts were mostly concentrated on the men of the pack, for the ladies had been her family... before the world fell down around her. With an idle flick of her tail, she decided an introduction may as well be made. "I am Naira, of Poison Path..."

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

Ten calmed himself. He was jumping into the argument too quickly. This always happened for him, fore he couldn't keep his mouth shut. His brawny limbs forced him into a sit, and he forced his fur down. He counted to ten in his head ... One, two, three... The large man looked at the still-standing wolf before him and took account of her words. Respectfully, of course. She was his equal now, but she was always going to seem like his inferior muscle mass. That would never change.

"But the past is what shapes us, and if we don't look to it on occasion we run the risk of making the same mistakes again... and that friend is pure stupidity." She was right, and she was wrong. The past did shape you and what you are today, obviously. Tenzin himself knew he was a product of puppetry. But if you learned your lesson the first time, you won't have to keep studying the nightmare you were in before. That was the whole purpose of moving on; because you work so hard analyzing your problems until you realize you've already learned what you have needed to. And at that point, your future is crashing down on you and you have made another nightmare. The cycle repeats until you finally know that the present is a gift, and it's all that you have to worry about.

"Yes, the past is what shapes you, yet, if you have a complete puzzle piece from the ruins, you won't need to look back over your shoulder and slow your life down every single mistake. The first time it happens, you should learn your lesson from the aftermath left before you. Because with all that time you take to study your mistakes before, you forget to rebuild what you have now." Tenzin murmured thoughtfully, hoping it made some sense to her that she needed to move on with it. What it was didn't matter. That lesson worked most of the time. Her reply to his questions were of no use.

"Solomon's Seal, White Fir, Ginger..." Her words were of herbs. She was a healer? His ears perked in interest, forgetting their argument over the past. His eyes shone with curiosity. A few herbs grew in the haunted woods, but it was almost impossible with the lack of light. Vines could be found on almost every tree. Tenzin paused to look up at them. They looked pitiful: reaching for the sun longingly. His fur tingled with discomfort in the cold air. His paws were cold on the dusty, damp earth that vibrated through him. He longed for rest, a nice nap in a warm location. Tenzin had no idea if any warm place existed in this region he had stumbled into.

"Mostly, just a chance to get away. Things have changed... and I am yet to determine a course of action. It's easier to think when you don't have to contend with the clattering jaws of the self-important." Tenzin let the trace of a smile appear on his face. She was right. It's easier to think here than to think in the soundtrack of the mountains, where a wolf was always sure to roam and chatter. No one dared to come here, where the ghosts whispered and the wind sang with the spirits. He dipped his head and murmured an agreement, listening to her as calmly as possible.

"I am Naira, of Poison Path..." Naira. He made a mental note of her name, but shoved that aside to make room for his question about this "Poison Path." He assumed it as a pack. "You live in a pack?" This caught him off guard. Oddly, the man would've never guessed. He actually thought there were no packs around here. It hadn't seen one since he left his own family. Well, actually, he had seen another after that,...but those thoughts were for other days.

We stopped believing in the bumps in the night, and started being afraid that the love might die. We went from cavemen to caved in, from ageless to aimless. We built it up but never put the base in. It was almost like being back here... Bought her back to who she was, without the rose tinted glasses of the naive. She had refound her patience, but whether it would last beyond the closed in woods was yet to be seen. She listened attentively to the other mans words and found herself warming to him. She too, drew her rear to the musty earth, making herself comfortable. My what a pair of philosophers they would seem to the unsuspecting. She observed the man closely as he spoke and a small smile painted her face, seemingly lifting a fraction of the emotional baggage that had been dragging her down. She still had her children to worry about, but the pack would care for them whether she stayed or not, that much was apparent. For now, she had time to make herself comfortable and simply enjoy the place she currently was, with the company she had unintentionally stumbled upon. She was a firm believer that everything happened for a reason. Perhaps the wolf gods were answering her prayers. His interest seemed to pique at the mention of the herbs she was seeking. They preferred the dark, and while white fir could also be found closer to home, and solomon's seal was fairly common at the base of the mountain on the very fringes of the woods, this was the only place she had encountered ginger. She was sure she had spied the large, kidney shaped leaves just behind the hollow tree she had dug her old den under. Perhaps that was the real reason she had come here? But his attention was once again diverted as she mentioned her pack. She supposed the scents of others (with the exception of Adonis) weren't as thickly on her fur and one may expect of a pack wolf, and she wasn't particularly close to her home either. "Yes, we live on the mountain..." she mentioned conversationally. She wondered if it would be safe to tell him of her current predicament but chose to hold back for now. Their current truce could be broken were the wrong words said, and if he were a beast of complete loyalty and servitude at heart, her treasonous thoughts may not go down well. "Have you been looking for a new home Tenzin?" she questioned, as she may have once before. Before when the members of the pack were hers to choose and discard as she wished. Old habits died hard.

Tenzin felt himself growing more and more comfortable in her presence, but something told him to stop being so calm with her. He had never been so warmed-up to any wolf that wasn't in his family. It was odd, it made him frown to himself and scorn Jupitus. Do not blasphemy! The brute would remind himself hastily. His tail wrapped under his gray and red paws, he smirked at her words, "Yes, we live on the mountain..."

If that mountain was anything as cold as the mountain he and Kamota confronted each other, it was a bad idea to make home in. He shivered with the thought, and then remembered his own home. It was central in the wilds, so it had its ups and downs in the seasons. But it seemed like living in the mountains would bring cold from every direction. It definitely wasn't the place that he would choose, especially if you plan on raising a family there. He would probably never raise a family anyways. It wasn't of his business, but that didn't change his course of thought.

"Why did your pack choose to live in the mountain? Isn't that cold?" Tenzin wanted to know from a packmate herself. His ears flattened on his head as he stifled a shiver."Have you been looking for a new home Tenzin?" The older wolf inquired, making him chuckle. His gravelly voice responded as if he was thinking about his answer carefully. "Hah! Do I look like the guy who'd obey orders from an uptight alpha? Tenzin snorted and rolled his eyes, laughing a little. He had taken a moment to consider joining Poison Path for the heck of it...just to haunt Kamota. He didn't think he should mention it to a Poison Path member themself.. Finally, his voice evened and he continued in a friendlier way, "Ah, no offense, but I've never been much of a family guy anyways. I like taking care of me, myself, and I. Hell, I wanna whack all my family members upside the head for what they've done! If I ever get to see them again, that's probably what I'll do!"

Made it to the moon then we stopped creating spaceships. Reached for the stars but we never quite made it. We each grew up and put our wisdom on to paper But we left our hearts somewhere in those pages When we left. There was only one mountain for miles, and it still tugged at her gut, calling her back. She pushed down the pull of it for now, she still had a lot to do before she made the long climb home. "Why did your pack choose to live in the mountain? Isn't that cold?" She had never really thought of it like that. Certainly the winter would be cold, but it was cold wherever you went. At least they had the boulders and crevices to shelter them from the cutting winds. "My mother was Arctic so the cold has never really bothered me and my ma-" well it was half out now. "My mate wanted a defensible position... we didn't exactly leave our former pack on amicable terms... then... We left..." Her brows drew together with an exasperated sigh it was such a long story. "My son was taken, I found him. Then the landslide... I came back and he was gone, so was one of my children... She..." she still struggled to voice the fate of her smallest daughter. "I found him once... and he attacked us, me and my son... He's mad." There was no real distress to her retelling, it simply was what it was. She wasn't even sure if he was her mate anymore. He had said he would never leave... There was a hint of sadness evident in her eyes, but his next comment bought a smile back to her face. She had never considered herself uptight, although the image of Athena sauntering about on her territory did come to mind. A small giggle escaped her mouth and he began speaking of whacking family, her mind momentarily drifted to Kanosak. She still wondered if he had survived their prior encounter. "You don't need to tell me about obnoxious siblings." a hint of a laugh was laced into her tone, but her smile quickly dropped and her voice gained a chill. "I just wish I still had the authority to pick and choose my family... but, well, soon enough eh?" a dangerous glint had entered her eyes with the last. Plots always seemed to be afoot under the twisted and gnarled trees of the ghastly woods. She had never really had a plan beyond getting back to her children. Now that had been achieved, she had been feeling somewhat aimless, and it was that idle time that had allowed the seed of an idea to germinate. For the most part she left it to its own devices, taking the occasional quiet moment to tend to it, and see how it flourished, what the next course of action may be. Yes it was just an idea, but it was quickly growing into something potentially dangerous.

Text text text"My mother was Arctic so the cold has never really bothered me and my ma-" There was a breathtakingly long silence where Tenzin suddenly realized that she had some kind of hidden past that she wasn't telling very well. He strained to hear her story as she spoke, her voice only cracking once. He looked down upon her softly and tentatively while she explained. This left him wondering how much she had really gone through. "My mate wanted a defensible position... we didn't exactly leave our former pack on amicable terms... then... We left...My son was taken, I found him. Then the landslide... I came back and he was gone, so was one of my children... She...I found him once... and he attacked us, me and my son... He's mad."

Naira's words tangled in his brain. It took him a few minutes, which seemed like a few million hours, to make sense of them. Those were some of the longest time frames of his life. His amber eyes seemed to avert from his paws, to her face, and a smile planted upon his maw. A crooked smile. An evil smile, but at the same time: understanding. His fur tingled. He searched for the right words to reply to her story. He did not care to tell his own yet. It wasn't exactly the kind of past that many people got to hear. They're not many wolves that Tenzin Laylani trusted. Not even his own brother.

So. This was it. She was a leader of a pack, whether or not she founded it was questionable. Not anymore, obviously. She had, or has a mate, and he was mad. Something happened to her children. And he felt sickly sorry for the older she-wolf. "I'm sorry about what's happened...." Tenzin whispered, slowly moving his brute body into a standing position and creeping over to Naira. He nuzzled her in her cheek and then touched noses with her some-what affectionately, but quickly moved backwards. He seemed surprised in his own compassion. He obviously straightened up and became hardened again, holding his head high with strength.

"You don't need to tell me about obnoxious siblings. I just wish I still had the authority to pick and choose my family... but, well, soon enough eh?" A chill filled her voice, just a bit short of dangerous. He liked it. "Ah, so what's the plan, your highness? The grizzly voice toned in. He was happy to be able to help with whatever she needed, as long as he wasn't her permanent slave-boy.