The Wildwood A populated ghost town

There was a gust of air, skimming along the snowy ground and making the limbs rattle overhead. It rocked a branch starting to emerge through snow in the almost-spring air. And with that gust of cool air it was gone. Iopah thrust her black nose sharply into the damp bark. But the last trace of Danica was whipped along with the wind. Her heart sank and she continued to look down at the branch, unseeing as hopelessness rendered her immobile. I should have started searching as soon as she left.

But she was proud of Danica. The girl was navigating in and out of the borders without problem. Iopah had faith that Danica would have no trouble making her way back home. The morning had stretched into day, then twilight before Iopah became worried. After a hurried and distracted border run Iopah had set out after her. Slipping away without a word. There was an uneasy suspicion that the girl had made a conscious decision to not return. If she told someone where she was going they would have voiced that possibility. She didn't want to hear it yet and didn't want to risk being told not to search for someone that didn't want to be found.

Branch forgotten now her head lifted slowly. The scarred forest stretched out around her but she had no path to follow. To continue would be aimless wandering. Her charcoal-edged ears flicked indecisively. She had no other option. Her lungs filled with as much damp March air as they could hold. She did not want her call to be loud and piercing. She wanted it to travel long and low through the forest till it reached Danica. Pitching her ears back she sang out, then waited, hoping for a reply.

He'd tracked her for most of the day and into the night, leaving a trail behind him that was not unlike the one he followed forward. Truth be told, he was unsure of her agenda, and @Iopah, as well as many others belonging to Secret Woodlands, remained a mystery to him. Mirren was old enough to be aware that Nina's children were gone, every one of them. Be it death or a lesser tragedy to mark their departure, the thicket was notably quieter and less...alive. It was as though each of the little ones had taken a piece of its livelihood with them. The boy considered this and many things─including his own yearning to search and find his own brother─as he slipped through the trees that dotted the forest's borders. In the distance, the she wolf's low-pitched cry rattled through the barren canopy, as ghostly as the appearance of this place. It was full of sorrow, and urgency, and the way she sang painted the picture he couldn't see before: she was searching. Moonlight fell down from the sky, capering across his back and marbled with the shadows cast by the branches' obstruction of it. Even in the darkness and the way it drown out the amber hue of his eyes, the boy's gaze was bright and sharp as long, sweeping strides brought him closer to his pack mate. The crunch of snow beneath his weight would surely announce his presence, and as he finally caught a sight of her he came to a pointed halt. His russet ears flickered attentively forward, and he shifted his weight as he searched for the words to say after a long day of tracking her down. They were not as easy to find as he had thought they would be. "What're you doing out here?" he questioned without judgment, his voice carrying across the silence of the empty woods. The words didn't really convey what he wanted to say. Crying for them in the night will not bring them back.

@Mirren
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Despite all the time and effort, Iopah didn't really expect to find her. There was no sharp disappointment as she stared through the twisted trees. The roughened limbs dragged against each other in a breeze, the sound a mocking reply to her own call. It had taken hours to come this far, plenty of time to come to an uncomfortable realization. Danica had left them. And, of course, Iopah would be able to recognize it. Hadn't she once done the same thing in a fit of grief and anger?

She did not expect anything beyond the grating squeal of the forest in response. She was fully prepared to spent several more minutes feeling sorry for Danica -and by extension, herself- and then slink quietly home to find some distracting task to throw herself into. There was a dull crunch in the snow and her heart beat naively while her head swung back and forth to look. Not Danica, but another familiar figure stood watching her. Her ears pinned back sharply then flicked forward, all in rapid succession. Suspicion giving way immediately to a determined acceptance.

Clearly this was no coincidence, but Iopah couldn't come up with anything to say to him. She turned her head down and away from him, looking back into the forest, waiting for what was coming. He wouldn't have followed her this far without having something he wanted to say. She could feel his gaze and a gray lined ear swiveled back to him. There was a quiet shifting and then a question. Iopah sighed resignedly as she started to follow her trail back towards him. It was a simple question with a complicated answer. If she wasn't searching for Danica, then what exactly could she say?

"I'm not a fool," She said quietly, "I know she left us." However, that didn't quite answer the question and she kept her gaze on him as her approach continued. "But it felt wrong to me to just let her leave without reacting somehow." A few feet away she held back, that answer sounded unfinished even to her. The idea that a pack still longed for a deserter was soothing. Hundreds of miles had been traveled with the understanding that she could only go forward, that the pack she had left cared nothing for her. She wanted to believe otherwise. Even now, years later, is eased the rip inside her. She blinked and looked away, she didn't have a way with words, there was no way to communication that to him. She shrugged, as if admitting that she the best she could explain. "I had not meant to waste anyone's time but my own." No direct question there, but her eyes narrowed pryingly, the gold two narrow bands of brightness in the dark.

(This post was last modified: Jun 30, 2014, 06:36 AM by Iopah.)