Post by Therdde on May 12, 2009 21:24:15 GMT -5
Characters:
Skelaghe - Female Wolf
Ashen - Male Juvenile Cougar
Helaku - Male Wolf
- Wind-Blown Lowlands -
It has been several days since Skelaghe first found Ashen, but she has not yet brought him all the way into her home. She managed to talk to her mate today, though... And as she made her way from her mate, she allowed some of her tears to fall. Why is she so upset? Even she doesn't know. Some of what Helaku said was bad, but not /that/ bad. At least the tears have stopped before Skelaghe reaches the area where she last left Ashen, leaving her with some mildly hollow feeling. All she can do is hope she feels better after some rest. Her advancing pregnancy is beginning to wear on her, however slowly.
The snow is starting to thin, and the air isn't quite so freezing, with spring inching ever closer. All the same, Ashen still must make an effort to keep himself warm. The cub is wound into a tight circle, face tucked into his paws. Occasionally, a shiver runs through his body. At first, he seems to be sleeping peacefully in spite. But closer inspection would reveal that Ashen's eyes are in fact half open, and his ears swivel around toward Skel in a manner that could only indicate that he's conscious and alert. As the wolf gets close, he lifts his head.
"Ashen." At least Skel's voice is not entirely without warmth, entirely without softness. Regardless of her current feelings towards her mate, she feels nothing but sympathy for this young cougar. Stopping a short distance away, she goes on to ask, "Do you think you could walk a little further?" Almost entirely gone is any temptation she had to continue on to Amaranth. No, she will spend the rest of her day near this cougar, even if it is only watching over him as he rests.
"Yes?" Ashen is completely attentive to Skel. At her question, he untangles himself and pushes himself up shakily to his paws. "I think so." He puts as little possible weight on his hind leg, already starting to grow accustomed to the limp. "Are we going someplace?" He asks, trying to walk to her, but winding up pointed a little too far to the right.
"The rest of the way to my home, where we'll be a little bit safer. It won't take too long to get there." Skelaghe does not make him wait for an answer, and, as before, even after she begins walking very slowly, she speaks regularly. "I talked with my mate, and he said he'd be glad to have you there, so you won't have to worry about that." That really is the only reason why Ashen isn't there yet. She didn't want to have her mate react unfavorably and scare the poor boy.
A faint smile imprints itself on Ashen's maw. "Really?" There's an edge of excitement to his voice. Some of it is out of relief; Ashen doesn't enjoy the moments he spends alone. He can't sleep well, and the slightest of sounds frighten him. But he's also interested in seeing Skel's home. Not that he actually can /see/ it, but the thought is there. "What's your mate's name?" The child wonders, trailing after the sound of her voice. "Do you have any cubs?"
Were Ashen not blind, her condition would be obvious. As it is... Even though the boy can't see, a small smile graces her muzzle as she keeps up the slow pace. "My mate's name is Helaku, and my packbrother is Teketa." Those are the two Ashen is most likely to meet. "There aren't any pups yet, but there will be soon. Very soon."
"Helaku. Teketa." Ashen murmurs to himself, not wanting to forget their names when he meets them. His head tilts a little at the word 'pup.' That must be what wolves call their children, then. "Soon? You have not met them yet?" He hasn't the faintest idea how these things work. The only other cubs he'd even met were his age, so the concept of pregnancy is rather foreign to him.
Skelaghe chuckles lightly. Before she approached Ashen, she nearly forgot the joy children inspire in her. Now, her argument with Helaku is far from her mind. "That's one way to phrase it. I haven't birthed them yet, Ashen. They're still growing inside of me." Still, she phrased it to Helaku much the same way, once. Told him she had never been so excited to meet someone who did not yet exist.
"Growing inside you?" Ashen looks confounded and concerned. He tries to imagine littler versions of Skel running around inside her body. It's difficult of course, not knowing what the wolf looks like. So he defaults to picturing a cougar. "Doesn't that hurt at all?" And surely it's not a contagious thing? Ashen doesn't think he would much enjoy having little cubs inside of /him/. Thankfully for Skel, Ashen doesn't think to inquire how they got there.
Perhaps it's better that Ashen currently can't see. Skelaghe would hate for him to witness her amusement and think she's making fun of him. "No, Ashen, it doesn't hurt. Girls are made to have pups inside of them. It's natural." If /Ashen/ were pregnant, it would probably hurt a great deal. Even in Skelaghe, there have been moments of discomfort. No real pain, though.
Ashen falls a little slower as he digests this new information, not sure whether to find it fascinating or disturbing. Is that where he was from? And his brothers, too? "Oh. Well, when do you decide to let them out?" He picks up his pace again, as if he was going to get left behind if he didn't. Ashen squeaks a little when his hip bone grinds with an incorrect step. It hurts, but at least not so much as the day he first received the injury.
Skelaghe stops abruptly when she hears Ashen squeak to look directly at him. The very fact that she is asking him to walk when he is injured hurts her, but... Not much further. In an attempt to draw the boy's mind from the pain he must be in, she says, "It's not really up to me. It's up to them. They'll come out when they're ready." There is only enough of a pause for her to take a breath, after which she adds, "Hey. Maybe when we get back to my home, you could talk to them and tell them it's time to hurry up, already."
At this point, the leg is grating from the extensive use. The conversation, though, is engaging enough that the cub does his best to put it out of his mind. "They do?" Ashen can't remember if that were the case for him. For that matter, he can't even remember when he first came into existence. The concept is strange, and difficult to think on for long. Skel's proposal distracts him from it, and Ashen nods. "Okay, I will. I want to meet them, too."
Helaku sat stiffly at the top of a small hill, just on the edge of the grass and under a tree, freshly washed and quite damp. He had been watching the plains, but not so much listening in on conversations. His concern now was merely this odd, unusual region. No raiding parties, no prisoners, pirates...nothing. Most of all, no humans. This was strange. Of course, Ute had never been among those things before he came here, but such things he had grown so accustomed to that this setting was alien. Nature...acting...naturally. Now there's a thought.
Skelaghe smiles brightly as she keeps walking, if a little slower now, since Ashen's earlier pain-filled squeak. Looking up at the slope ahead of him, she spots her mate, and her smile fades just slightly. Her tone remains much the same, though, as she asks Ashen, "How about my mate? Would you like to meet him, too?"
Ashen doesn't pick up on Skel's mood change. If his mind was drifting all over the place, he might. But as it is, he's still relatively cheerful, and assumes she is the same. "Yeah, I would." He answers, not knowing to slow down until he brushes against her leg, managing to not run into it through mere luck. "Are we almost there?"
Helaku kept to silence, remaining still as ever. He did not want to suddenly expose himself from the tree's shadow and spook the cougar child she said she would bring with her. And...he liked sitting where he was anyway. Why should he get up when they were all ready walking? Ha, ha--Helaku. Nookai would call that typical of you.
There is one... No, make that two, very good reasons Helaku should get up. Skelaghe is very pregnant, and Ashen has an injured legs. Of course, Skelaghe isn't expecting her mate to be at all considerate just now, so... Pushing her troubles with her mate from her mind as she climbs the hill, she responds, "He is just at the top of the hill we're climbing, Ashen." And if he has decided to stop being a complete JERK, he will greet them when they draw near.
Oblivious to how Skel's feeling right now, Ashen tries to push himself a little harder, to get to the top of the hill as quick as possible. "Is he still there?" The cub asks a second later, squinting his eyes and trying to will them to work so that Helaku would actually come into view. It's hopeless, of course. All he can make out of anything are dark blobs set against an equally dark backdrop.
Helaku had to admit, Skel was beautiful when she was angry. Slowly he emerged, looking down at the both of him like the go---er strong wolf he was. Helaku slipped down into the grass and proceeded straight and towards them until he disappeared in the grass, hidden. He was, however on his way, but no longer visible. Helaku had his reasons, of course. Yes, he did. Their focus was climbing up, and his was going down...far down. He 'was' at the top of the hill, but not anymore. :3
So help her, if Helaku does anything to frighten this cub... Skelaghe stops walking and says, "Just rest, Ashen, He's coming to us now." As he should have the moment he saw them, but Skelaghe doesn't say that much. Her trouble with her mate will remain firmly between herself and Helaku, and no one else. Then, calling out, she says, "Of course, a more polite wolf might've said hello by now!" It's said less with admonishment and more with a hint of amusement, joking.
Ashen dutifully stops as he's told, falling back onto his haunches with a questioning look. "Which way?" He alternates his sightless gaze in various directions, hoping at least one of them is correct. It certainly would be rude to seem like he was ignoring Helaku. Where ever he is.
Where-ever he was...sometimes the old pack called him 'coyote' because of his trickster tendencies. After all, there was a rumor among the Ute that coyote was in his ancestry somewhere. Where 'did' he go anyway? As turned out, he had gone passed them and circled...quickly. "Hello," he said, appearing out of the grass...somewhat behind them? How did he do that? "As the more polite wolf would say."
Skelaghe turns to face the male wolf. Irritating git... But then again, perhaps those are just her hormones speaking again. "Helaku-" Is that a warning in his tone? "-this is Ashen. He can't see, and he has a sore leg." In other words, don't be a jerk! Jerk.
Ashen flinches. He was expecting the voices to all come from in front of him, so when one of them is actually from behind? The cub bounds forward, into Skelaghe, seeking a hiding place somewhere in her fur. It takes a few slow moments for him to figure out who the words must have belonged to. "Ah... um. Hi..." Ashen looked quite a bit sheepish. "Sorry." He steps back from Skel, and looking around, having already forgotten which direction Helaku's voice came from.
Helaku's ears went alert the moment he heard the cub was blind. "He cannot see?" he said, slowly approaching them both. "Nothing at all?" That brought a change in Helaku's mannerisms. Immediately, he was not as stiff, foreboding, or mischevious. He came close enough for Ashen to theoretically feel his presence. He tilted his head, watching how the cub reacted to his voice, wondering if he would try to hide endlessly under Skel.
That would count as scaring Ashen! Had Ashen taken it in stride, Skelaghe probably would have done the same. As it is... Lowering her head to rub very lightly against the startled cub, she says, "You have nothing to apologize for, Ashen." /Helaku/, on the other hand... Looking to her mate, clearly a bit angry, she says, "You can ask him, you know. He is neither mute nor deaf." Obviously.
Ashen's head sinks down a bit, feeling very self-conscious with the talk of his blindness. Skel's comforting does settle him down a little bit. His eyes drag toward Helaku's muzzle when he speaks, and keeps his head pointed in that direction. His pupils, however, twitch and fidget, as if a little unsure of where to focus at. He wants to look respectfully at the other wolf, but naturally wants to avoid eye contact. After a while, he gives up and flops to the ground, not sure what to say.
Skelaghe - Female Wolf
Ashen - Male Juvenile Cougar
Helaku - Male Wolf
- Wind-Blown Lowlands -
It has been several days since Skelaghe first found Ashen, but she has not yet brought him all the way into her home. She managed to talk to her mate today, though... And as she made her way from her mate, she allowed some of her tears to fall. Why is she so upset? Even she doesn't know. Some of what Helaku said was bad, but not /that/ bad. At least the tears have stopped before Skelaghe reaches the area where she last left Ashen, leaving her with some mildly hollow feeling. All she can do is hope she feels better after some rest. Her advancing pregnancy is beginning to wear on her, however slowly.
The snow is starting to thin, and the air isn't quite so freezing, with spring inching ever closer. All the same, Ashen still must make an effort to keep himself warm. The cub is wound into a tight circle, face tucked into his paws. Occasionally, a shiver runs through his body. At first, he seems to be sleeping peacefully in spite. But closer inspection would reveal that Ashen's eyes are in fact half open, and his ears swivel around toward Skel in a manner that could only indicate that he's conscious and alert. As the wolf gets close, he lifts his head.
"Ashen." At least Skel's voice is not entirely without warmth, entirely without softness. Regardless of her current feelings towards her mate, she feels nothing but sympathy for this young cougar. Stopping a short distance away, she goes on to ask, "Do you think you could walk a little further?" Almost entirely gone is any temptation she had to continue on to Amaranth. No, she will spend the rest of her day near this cougar, even if it is only watching over him as he rests.
"Yes?" Ashen is completely attentive to Skel. At her question, he untangles himself and pushes himself up shakily to his paws. "I think so." He puts as little possible weight on his hind leg, already starting to grow accustomed to the limp. "Are we going someplace?" He asks, trying to walk to her, but winding up pointed a little too far to the right.
"The rest of the way to my home, where we'll be a little bit safer. It won't take too long to get there." Skelaghe does not make him wait for an answer, and, as before, even after she begins walking very slowly, she speaks regularly. "I talked with my mate, and he said he'd be glad to have you there, so you won't have to worry about that." That really is the only reason why Ashen isn't there yet. She didn't want to have her mate react unfavorably and scare the poor boy.
A faint smile imprints itself on Ashen's maw. "Really?" There's an edge of excitement to his voice. Some of it is out of relief; Ashen doesn't enjoy the moments he spends alone. He can't sleep well, and the slightest of sounds frighten him. But he's also interested in seeing Skel's home. Not that he actually can /see/ it, but the thought is there. "What's your mate's name?" The child wonders, trailing after the sound of her voice. "Do you have any cubs?"
Were Ashen not blind, her condition would be obvious. As it is... Even though the boy can't see, a small smile graces her muzzle as she keeps up the slow pace. "My mate's name is Helaku, and my packbrother is Teketa." Those are the two Ashen is most likely to meet. "There aren't any pups yet, but there will be soon. Very soon."
"Helaku. Teketa." Ashen murmurs to himself, not wanting to forget their names when he meets them. His head tilts a little at the word 'pup.' That must be what wolves call their children, then. "Soon? You have not met them yet?" He hasn't the faintest idea how these things work. The only other cubs he'd even met were his age, so the concept of pregnancy is rather foreign to him.
Skelaghe chuckles lightly. Before she approached Ashen, she nearly forgot the joy children inspire in her. Now, her argument with Helaku is far from her mind. "That's one way to phrase it. I haven't birthed them yet, Ashen. They're still growing inside of me." Still, she phrased it to Helaku much the same way, once. Told him she had never been so excited to meet someone who did not yet exist.
"Growing inside you?" Ashen looks confounded and concerned. He tries to imagine littler versions of Skel running around inside her body. It's difficult of course, not knowing what the wolf looks like. So he defaults to picturing a cougar. "Doesn't that hurt at all?" And surely it's not a contagious thing? Ashen doesn't think he would much enjoy having little cubs inside of /him/. Thankfully for Skel, Ashen doesn't think to inquire how they got there.
Perhaps it's better that Ashen currently can't see. Skelaghe would hate for him to witness her amusement and think she's making fun of him. "No, Ashen, it doesn't hurt. Girls are made to have pups inside of them. It's natural." If /Ashen/ were pregnant, it would probably hurt a great deal. Even in Skelaghe, there have been moments of discomfort. No real pain, though.
Ashen falls a little slower as he digests this new information, not sure whether to find it fascinating or disturbing. Is that where he was from? And his brothers, too? "Oh. Well, when do you decide to let them out?" He picks up his pace again, as if he was going to get left behind if he didn't. Ashen squeaks a little when his hip bone grinds with an incorrect step. It hurts, but at least not so much as the day he first received the injury.
Skelaghe stops abruptly when she hears Ashen squeak to look directly at him. The very fact that she is asking him to walk when he is injured hurts her, but... Not much further. In an attempt to draw the boy's mind from the pain he must be in, she says, "It's not really up to me. It's up to them. They'll come out when they're ready." There is only enough of a pause for her to take a breath, after which she adds, "Hey. Maybe when we get back to my home, you could talk to them and tell them it's time to hurry up, already."
At this point, the leg is grating from the extensive use. The conversation, though, is engaging enough that the cub does his best to put it out of his mind. "They do?" Ashen can't remember if that were the case for him. For that matter, he can't even remember when he first came into existence. The concept is strange, and difficult to think on for long. Skel's proposal distracts him from it, and Ashen nods. "Okay, I will. I want to meet them, too."
Helaku sat stiffly at the top of a small hill, just on the edge of the grass and under a tree, freshly washed and quite damp. He had been watching the plains, but not so much listening in on conversations. His concern now was merely this odd, unusual region. No raiding parties, no prisoners, pirates...nothing. Most of all, no humans. This was strange. Of course, Ute had never been among those things before he came here, but such things he had grown so accustomed to that this setting was alien. Nature...acting...naturally. Now there's a thought.
Skelaghe smiles brightly as she keeps walking, if a little slower now, since Ashen's earlier pain-filled squeak. Looking up at the slope ahead of him, she spots her mate, and her smile fades just slightly. Her tone remains much the same, though, as she asks Ashen, "How about my mate? Would you like to meet him, too?"
Ashen doesn't pick up on Skel's mood change. If his mind was drifting all over the place, he might. But as it is, he's still relatively cheerful, and assumes she is the same. "Yeah, I would." He answers, not knowing to slow down until he brushes against her leg, managing to not run into it through mere luck. "Are we almost there?"
Helaku kept to silence, remaining still as ever. He did not want to suddenly expose himself from the tree's shadow and spook the cougar child she said she would bring with her. And...he liked sitting where he was anyway. Why should he get up when they were all ready walking? Ha, ha--Helaku. Nookai would call that typical of you.
There is one... No, make that two, very good reasons Helaku should get up. Skelaghe is very pregnant, and Ashen has an injured legs. Of course, Skelaghe isn't expecting her mate to be at all considerate just now, so... Pushing her troubles with her mate from her mind as she climbs the hill, she responds, "He is just at the top of the hill we're climbing, Ashen." And if he has decided to stop being a complete JERK, he will greet them when they draw near.
Oblivious to how Skel's feeling right now, Ashen tries to push himself a little harder, to get to the top of the hill as quick as possible. "Is he still there?" The cub asks a second later, squinting his eyes and trying to will them to work so that Helaku would actually come into view. It's hopeless, of course. All he can make out of anything are dark blobs set against an equally dark backdrop.
Helaku had to admit, Skel was beautiful when she was angry. Slowly he emerged, looking down at the both of him like the go---er strong wolf he was. Helaku slipped down into the grass and proceeded straight and towards them until he disappeared in the grass, hidden. He was, however on his way, but no longer visible. Helaku had his reasons, of course. Yes, he did. Their focus was climbing up, and his was going down...far down. He 'was' at the top of the hill, but not anymore. :3
So help her, if Helaku does anything to frighten this cub... Skelaghe stops walking and says, "Just rest, Ashen, He's coming to us now." As he should have the moment he saw them, but Skelaghe doesn't say that much. Her trouble with her mate will remain firmly between herself and Helaku, and no one else. Then, calling out, she says, "Of course, a more polite wolf might've said hello by now!" It's said less with admonishment and more with a hint of amusement, joking.
Ashen dutifully stops as he's told, falling back onto his haunches with a questioning look. "Which way?" He alternates his sightless gaze in various directions, hoping at least one of them is correct. It certainly would be rude to seem like he was ignoring Helaku. Where ever he is.
Where-ever he was...sometimes the old pack called him 'coyote' because of his trickster tendencies. After all, there was a rumor among the Ute that coyote was in his ancestry somewhere. Where 'did' he go anyway? As turned out, he had gone passed them and circled...quickly. "Hello," he said, appearing out of the grass...somewhat behind them? How did he do that? "As the more polite wolf would say."
Skelaghe turns to face the male wolf. Irritating git... But then again, perhaps those are just her hormones speaking again. "Helaku-" Is that a warning in his tone? "-this is Ashen. He can't see, and he has a sore leg." In other words, don't be a jerk! Jerk.
Ashen flinches. He was expecting the voices to all come from in front of him, so when one of them is actually from behind? The cub bounds forward, into Skelaghe, seeking a hiding place somewhere in her fur. It takes a few slow moments for him to figure out who the words must have belonged to. "Ah... um. Hi..." Ashen looked quite a bit sheepish. "Sorry." He steps back from Skel, and looking around, having already forgotten which direction Helaku's voice came from.
Helaku's ears went alert the moment he heard the cub was blind. "He cannot see?" he said, slowly approaching them both. "Nothing at all?" That brought a change in Helaku's mannerisms. Immediately, he was not as stiff, foreboding, or mischevious. He came close enough for Ashen to theoretically feel his presence. He tilted his head, watching how the cub reacted to his voice, wondering if he would try to hide endlessly under Skel.
That would count as scaring Ashen! Had Ashen taken it in stride, Skelaghe probably would have done the same. As it is... Lowering her head to rub very lightly against the startled cub, she says, "You have nothing to apologize for, Ashen." /Helaku/, on the other hand... Looking to her mate, clearly a bit angry, she says, "You can ask him, you know. He is neither mute nor deaf." Obviously.
Ashen's head sinks down a bit, feeling very self-conscious with the talk of his blindness. Skel's comforting does settle him down a little bit. His eyes drag toward Helaku's muzzle when he speaks, and keeps his head pointed in that direction. His pupils, however, twitch and fidget, as if a little unsure of where to focus at. He wants to look respectfully at the other wolf, but naturally wants to avoid eye contact. After a while, he gives up and flops to the ground, not sure what to say.