Post by Therdde on Aug 14, 2009 19:29:09 GMT -5
Characters:
Skelaghe - Female Wolf
Vincent - Male Dog
Aquene - Female Juvenile Wolf
- Hilltop Vista -
The days are continuing to grow cooler. Though there are few trees here, the leaves on the ones off in the distance are turning beautiful colors. Skelaghe is enjoying the cool breeze as she walks back from the river. The news she has received about Amaranth pleases her, and she is in a wonderful mood, as is often the case recently. Even with her slow pace, it is not long before she spots her den.
She's dead. Honestly, really, truthfully- the news *still* hasn't sunk in yet. Vince' isn't really the most chatty dog at the best of times, but the recent (at least, it certainly SEEMS recent, to him) loss weighs heavily upon his countenance. Those who knew him before would hardly recognise him, at least by his manner... the events have aged him and poorly, as though the months (months? Can it really be months?) had been years. He has lost a lot of weight, barely hunting or feeding himself. His once-proud coat is ill kept and scraggly. Eyes, dull and lifeless. He barely speaks- maybe he has forgotten? And truely does not seek the company of others. When Sketch died, in a very real sense, a part of Vincent died as well... and it shows. He wanders. Not in any direction, but just about, aimlessly.
Aquene was...being Aquene. She sat near the mouth of the den, staring at her mother in the same way her father often stared at other beings. It was tense, it was worrying...but it was also cute in some bizarre way. "Hello, mother," she chimed, wagging her tail. Clearly..daddy's girl. Nobody messed with daddy's girl...ever.
Each of her children have their own little quirks. Aquene's... Well, Skelaghe will do everything she can to ensure that her daughter is happy, but she refuses to worry her daughter too much over her oddities. She walks right up to the girl before lowering her head to nuzzle the young female. "Good afternoon, puppy." She hasn't spotted Vincent yet, with her attention focused where she thinks it belongs. On her daughter.
Vincent wanders into the scene, not even really noticing for a time. But a smell... a familiar scent. His ears prick up. Maybe it's just his imagination? Really? Here? He wanders in a circle, sniffing curiously, then makes a beeline towards where he smelled... Skelaghe. The scent instantly brings back a flood of memories. Oh, so many memories- he winces from the thought of it all. Why's he going on? He should just leave- don't want to talk to her, don't want to- oh. He's here. He glances up, blinking curiously, looking at the female wolf he's not seen in what seems like forever. Honestly, he really doesn't know what to say, so just says nothing.
Aquene glared up at her mother with adorable eyes and pressed herself into the welcomed nuzzle before making to stand on her hind legs to 'grapple' her head. "Puppy?" she said. "I'm getting too old to be called that, mooooommmmm...!" Ah, there it was...the child disliking being called a child!
Skelaghe chuckles quietly at her daughter's protest that she is too old. "Not so. You'll always be my puppy." She would go on, but a bit of movement catches her attention. She looks, and almost immediately, her smile fades. He's thin and dirty, but under the scent of dirt... "Vincent?" There is a twinge of regret in her. She knew what he had to me off doing. Mourning. She had hoped it wouldn't be /this/ hard on him, though, and it hurts her that it apparently was.
Is that me? Oh- of course it is. Vincent blinks a little, surprised almost. "Oh." he says, eyes slowly moving between Skel', then Aquene, then Skel' again. "Uh... hey, hey. Yeah." A pause. "It's me. Uh... haven't, uh... haven't. Really done a lot, you know. Uhh... or seen you in, uhh... some time." Wow. The puppy's pretty obviously hers... seems to be doing okay... would be- well. Kinda about the same age his pups would have been. A bit younger maybe, but he hasn't exactly been tracking time as well as he normally would be. Might as well find out. "How long have I been gone?"
Aquene blinked. Whatever she would have said, the appearance of Vincent distracted her. As she was still young, though learning from her father how to defend herself, she retreated slowly to the den. There was something obviously wrong with this fetid thing that appeared before her mother. Yes, thing. Father's descriptions of how he was at one point in his life when Skel gave him food came to mind, but this 'thing' wasn't her father. It was...a 'thing'.
"Aquene." There is a gentle reprimand in Skelaghe's voice. She greeted the dog by name. Vincent clearly knows her. Aquene backing away deliberately is uncalled for. Turning her attention back to Vincent, Skelaghe says, "You've been gone many months. You've been sorely missed." In other words, he is still welcome, if he wants to be here.
Vincent's gaze continues to move between the two, before settling on Skelaghe. "Uhh, wow. That's a long time..." he raises an eyeridge curiously, as though about to ask a question, then it falls. "Oh. Wait, yeah. Of course you know about Sketch, hey..." A pause, light flick of his paw at a tuft of grass absently. "She's, uh, dead." he iterates, rather pointlessly. "But... well, yeah. You knew that." He sighs, then shakes his head a bit. "Anyway. You seem to be doing well for yourself," he remarks, a slight tinge of... something... in his voice. Envy?
Aquene looked to her mother, but she still didn't care for the look of that..thing. As much as she wanted to say something, she didn't. Control..that was what her father taught her. Only speak when it was necessary on topics of distaste, and now was not a necessary time. She kept behind her mother, silent and ever-peeping.
"Yes, I know. I'm so very sorry, Vincent." Skelaghe has come to terms with the role she played in Sketch's death, but that doesn't make her regret any less genuine, as she expresses it to the male dog who lost his friend. In part, she feels guilty /because. she has moved on, while Vincent obviously has not. She would have never moved on so quickly were it not for the support structure she has in her pack, which Vincent didn't have.
"Yeah," Vincent mutters, somewhat less than convincingly. There's no... "Oh, it wasn't your fault, don't worry!"... nothing like that. Just a simple acknowledgement that, well, yes. At least in his eyes, it's her fault. "Lost... she, um. Yeah. Well, uh, the pups are gone, too..." again, another pause, then a mildly annoyed growl- as though angry at himself for stating the obvious. "But, of course, you knew that. Of course they are. Stupid, stupid, stupid." Of course everything's going well for her- of course it is! Perfect! Bah!
Aquene's eyes twitched. This strange beast who came before them was...nothing to be admired. The pup picked up something in him...something rather nasty. None of the other creatures she had encountered thus far acted with the behavior this 'thing' displayed. Surely, Father wouldn't like 'it' being so close to the den. In the end, father would most likely have told her he had severe mental issues.
Pups? Oh, no. Please. "She was...? Oh, Vincent. I didn't know. She never-" Pregnant? Sketch? Why didn't the dog say something? Skelaghe never would have sent Sketch in her stead had she known, and now, the guilt flares back up, and she feels it for much more than simply because Vincent has not fared well. She has accepted that she cost Sketch her life, but to have risked the lives of unborn pups...
"You didn't KNOW?!" Anger! Aquene's observations aren't far off the mark. Death kinda broke the puppy and he's not quite right in the noggin at the moment. He glances at Skel'. Look at her there, with her happy life- she wrecked his! Broke it, smashed it, took it all away... took it for herself, somehow. Maybe she planned the whole thing? Was it deliberate? Hmm. Such thoughts flitter through his brain like autumn leaves. Autumn leaves in an autumn cyclone, that is! "She- we... I mean, I- you...!"
Skelaghe's first reprimand was directed toward her daughter. Now, her guilt aside, it is directed toward Vincent. Her gaze a little harder, a tiny bit inured against his pain, she says, "You have reason to be angry with me. I understand that. But your problem is with /me/, and my daughter is not to be subject to it." She had no way of knowing. Even though she had no way of knowing, she apologized. Even though she had no way of knowing, she feels guilt. What else does Vincent want from her? "I /am/ sorry. Neither you nor she deserved what happened. I have to look to the future, though, for the sake of my children." Her very much /innocent/ children.
"I am angry at you!" he barks, growling, although such a thing is hardly obvious. "You didn't know? How can you say that! You didn't know. You didn't know! Wrong! Wrong! That can't be right." A pause, narrowing of eyes. "Did you do this deliberately? Do you kill her deliberately? I want answers! You owe me answers!" He stands, stomping on the ground with a forepaw, a somewhat wild look in his eyes. "Tell me what you did!"
Aquene's eye twitched. Something broke in her with this creature yelling at her mother. She proved herself quick, tail frayed and ears alert--just like father dearest. At that moment, she didn't care if she was young, this creature was yelling at her mother and at the Alpha of the pack. "Mother owes no words to you," she hissed. "You do not come onto our lands...making demands. This, father says of any visitor, is wrong. And that no one demands things of Mother." Aquene knew she was probably overriding any rank she could have in the pack, but she didn't care at the moment. All she saw from Vincent was threat. And that said, Aquene barked and howled. She was calling for Father Dearest!
Skelaghe returns his growling. At this time of year, she's nearer to eighty pounds than her usual nearly seventy, and even though she's none too impressive for a wolf, she's more than a match for most of Vincent's breed. Before she can respond, though, Aquene does. "Aquene! Den. Now." Her voice is louder than before, but no harsher. At least, not to her daughter. Then, however, she turns her gaze to Vincent. "I made peace with myself and with Sketch. My daughter is right. I owe you nothing. What you get from me, you will get through my good will, as it has always been, and you are not pleading very well to my good will right now."
"I DON'T CARE!" Vincent roars, literally trembling with rage. "You took from me everything I cared for- you! Somehow I'm going to... I'm going to make you pay! I'm going to get it back! I don't know how. I don't know why- b-b-but some how!" He backs away a little, seething, hackles raised. "I'll get you for this! I will! Mark my words!" back, back, back. An angry growl- not quite with it now, is he. Suddenly... suddenly it all melts away. His shoulders slump and he just collapses, sobbing into his paws. No meaning or explanation is given, he just does it. Wailing and howling.
Aquene, Den. Now. Of course. She had called for her Father and from there, everything should be fine. Other youths might have turned their backs on an outsider, but not Aquene. Father taught her that as her first lesson. She tred backwards, alongside her Mother and slowly into the den, her eyes ever-staring at Vincent. And she stared at him even more when he started sobbing. Whiney little runt...
Skelaghe wants to offer him all the consolation she has within her. Right now, though, she has larger probems. Problems caused by Vincent yelling and screaming while her daughter was right nearby. Helaku ought to be here soon... But he also ought to remember Vincent, so hopefully nothing bad will come of it. After he finishes backing away, though, Skelaghe turns, and she sees her daughter staring. It's about time for Aquene to receive a lesson in compassion. "Go." She'll be right behind the girl.
Vincent calms himself after a time, then just goes completely limp, eyes closed, not moving at all. Quiet sobs are all that escape him, just curled up in a little ball on the ground, his tail wrapped around his head. Well... hmm.
Skelaghe - Female Wolf
Vincent - Male Dog
Aquene - Female Juvenile Wolf
- Hilltop Vista -
The days are continuing to grow cooler. Though there are few trees here, the leaves on the ones off in the distance are turning beautiful colors. Skelaghe is enjoying the cool breeze as she walks back from the river. The news she has received about Amaranth pleases her, and she is in a wonderful mood, as is often the case recently. Even with her slow pace, it is not long before she spots her den.
She's dead. Honestly, really, truthfully- the news *still* hasn't sunk in yet. Vince' isn't really the most chatty dog at the best of times, but the recent (at least, it certainly SEEMS recent, to him) loss weighs heavily upon his countenance. Those who knew him before would hardly recognise him, at least by his manner... the events have aged him and poorly, as though the months (months? Can it really be months?) had been years. He has lost a lot of weight, barely hunting or feeding himself. His once-proud coat is ill kept and scraggly. Eyes, dull and lifeless. He barely speaks- maybe he has forgotten? And truely does not seek the company of others. When Sketch died, in a very real sense, a part of Vincent died as well... and it shows. He wanders. Not in any direction, but just about, aimlessly.
Aquene was...being Aquene. She sat near the mouth of the den, staring at her mother in the same way her father often stared at other beings. It was tense, it was worrying...but it was also cute in some bizarre way. "Hello, mother," she chimed, wagging her tail. Clearly..daddy's girl. Nobody messed with daddy's girl...ever.
Each of her children have their own little quirks. Aquene's... Well, Skelaghe will do everything she can to ensure that her daughter is happy, but she refuses to worry her daughter too much over her oddities. She walks right up to the girl before lowering her head to nuzzle the young female. "Good afternoon, puppy." She hasn't spotted Vincent yet, with her attention focused where she thinks it belongs. On her daughter.
Vincent wanders into the scene, not even really noticing for a time. But a smell... a familiar scent. His ears prick up. Maybe it's just his imagination? Really? Here? He wanders in a circle, sniffing curiously, then makes a beeline towards where he smelled... Skelaghe. The scent instantly brings back a flood of memories. Oh, so many memories- he winces from the thought of it all. Why's he going on? He should just leave- don't want to talk to her, don't want to- oh. He's here. He glances up, blinking curiously, looking at the female wolf he's not seen in what seems like forever. Honestly, he really doesn't know what to say, so just says nothing.
Aquene glared up at her mother with adorable eyes and pressed herself into the welcomed nuzzle before making to stand on her hind legs to 'grapple' her head. "Puppy?" she said. "I'm getting too old to be called that, mooooommmmm...!" Ah, there it was...the child disliking being called a child!
Skelaghe chuckles quietly at her daughter's protest that she is too old. "Not so. You'll always be my puppy." She would go on, but a bit of movement catches her attention. She looks, and almost immediately, her smile fades. He's thin and dirty, but under the scent of dirt... "Vincent?" There is a twinge of regret in her. She knew what he had to me off doing. Mourning. She had hoped it wouldn't be /this/ hard on him, though, and it hurts her that it apparently was.
Is that me? Oh- of course it is. Vincent blinks a little, surprised almost. "Oh." he says, eyes slowly moving between Skel', then Aquene, then Skel' again. "Uh... hey, hey. Yeah." A pause. "It's me. Uh... haven't, uh... haven't. Really done a lot, you know. Uhh... or seen you in, uhh... some time." Wow. The puppy's pretty obviously hers... seems to be doing okay... would be- well. Kinda about the same age his pups would have been. A bit younger maybe, but he hasn't exactly been tracking time as well as he normally would be. Might as well find out. "How long have I been gone?"
Aquene blinked. Whatever she would have said, the appearance of Vincent distracted her. As she was still young, though learning from her father how to defend herself, she retreated slowly to the den. There was something obviously wrong with this fetid thing that appeared before her mother. Yes, thing. Father's descriptions of how he was at one point in his life when Skel gave him food came to mind, but this 'thing' wasn't her father. It was...a 'thing'.
"Aquene." There is a gentle reprimand in Skelaghe's voice. She greeted the dog by name. Vincent clearly knows her. Aquene backing away deliberately is uncalled for. Turning her attention back to Vincent, Skelaghe says, "You've been gone many months. You've been sorely missed." In other words, he is still welcome, if he wants to be here.
Vincent's gaze continues to move between the two, before settling on Skelaghe. "Uhh, wow. That's a long time..." he raises an eyeridge curiously, as though about to ask a question, then it falls. "Oh. Wait, yeah. Of course you know about Sketch, hey..." A pause, light flick of his paw at a tuft of grass absently. "She's, uh, dead." he iterates, rather pointlessly. "But... well, yeah. You knew that." He sighs, then shakes his head a bit. "Anyway. You seem to be doing well for yourself," he remarks, a slight tinge of... something... in his voice. Envy?
Aquene looked to her mother, but she still didn't care for the look of that..thing. As much as she wanted to say something, she didn't. Control..that was what her father taught her. Only speak when it was necessary on topics of distaste, and now was not a necessary time. She kept behind her mother, silent and ever-peeping.
"Yes, I know. I'm so very sorry, Vincent." Skelaghe has come to terms with the role she played in Sketch's death, but that doesn't make her regret any less genuine, as she expresses it to the male dog who lost his friend. In part, she feels guilty /because. she has moved on, while Vincent obviously has not. She would have never moved on so quickly were it not for the support structure she has in her pack, which Vincent didn't have.
"Yeah," Vincent mutters, somewhat less than convincingly. There's no... "Oh, it wasn't your fault, don't worry!"... nothing like that. Just a simple acknowledgement that, well, yes. At least in his eyes, it's her fault. "Lost... she, um. Yeah. Well, uh, the pups are gone, too..." again, another pause, then a mildly annoyed growl- as though angry at himself for stating the obvious. "But, of course, you knew that. Of course they are. Stupid, stupid, stupid." Of course everything's going well for her- of course it is! Perfect! Bah!
Aquene's eyes twitched. This strange beast who came before them was...nothing to be admired. The pup picked up something in him...something rather nasty. None of the other creatures she had encountered thus far acted with the behavior this 'thing' displayed. Surely, Father wouldn't like 'it' being so close to the den. In the end, father would most likely have told her he had severe mental issues.
Pups? Oh, no. Please. "She was...? Oh, Vincent. I didn't know. She never-" Pregnant? Sketch? Why didn't the dog say something? Skelaghe never would have sent Sketch in her stead had she known, and now, the guilt flares back up, and she feels it for much more than simply because Vincent has not fared well. She has accepted that she cost Sketch her life, but to have risked the lives of unborn pups...
"You didn't KNOW?!" Anger! Aquene's observations aren't far off the mark. Death kinda broke the puppy and he's not quite right in the noggin at the moment. He glances at Skel'. Look at her there, with her happy life- she wrecked his! Broke it, smashed it, took it all away... took it for herself, somehow. Maybe she planned the whole thing? Was it deliberate? Hmm. Such thoughts flitter through his brain like autumn leaves. Autumn leaves in an autumn cyclone, that is! "She- we... I mean, I- you...!"
Skelaghe's first reprimand was directed toward her daughter. Now, her guilt aside, it is directed toward Vincent. Her gaze a little harder, a tiny bit inured against his pain, she says, "You have reason to be angry with me. I understand that. But your problem is with /me/, and my daughter is not to be subject to it." She had no way of knowing. Even though she had no way of knowing, she apologized. Even though she had no way of knowing, she feels guilt. What else does Vincent want from her? "I /am/ sorry. Neither you nor she deserved what happened. I have to look to the future, though, for the sake of my children." Her very much /innocent/ children.
"I am angry at you!" he barks, growling, although such a thing is hardly obvious. "You didn't know? How can you say that! You didn't know. You didn't know! Wrong! Wrong! That can't be right." A pause, narrowing of eyes. "Did you do this deliberately? Do you kill her deliberately? I want answers! You owe me answers!" He stands, stomping on the ground with a forepaw, a somewhat wild look in his eyes. "Tell me what you did!"
Aquene's eye twitched. Something broke in her with this creature yelling at her mother. She proved herself quick, tail frayed and ears alert--just like father dearest. At that moment, she didn't care if she was young, this creature was yelling at her mother and at the Alpha of the pack. "Mother owes no words to you," she hissed. "You do not come onto our lands...making demands. This, father says of any visitor, is wrong. And that no one demands things of Mother." Aquene knew she was probably overriding any rank she could have in the pack, but she didn't care at the moment. All she saw from Vincent was threat. And that said, Aquene barked and howled. She was calling for Father Dearest!
Skelaghe returns his growling. At this time of year, she's nearer to eighty pounds than her usual nearly seventy, and even though she's none too impressive for a wolf, she's more than a match for most of Vincent's breed. Before she can respond, though, Aquene does. "Aquene! Den. Now." Her voice is louder than before, but no harsher. At least, not to her daughter. Then, however, she turns her gaze to Vincent. "I made peace with myself and with Sketch. My daughter is right. I owe you nothing. What you get from me, you will get through my good will, as it has always been, and you are not pleading very well to my good will right now."
"I DON'T CARE!" Vincent roars, literally trembling with rage. "You took from me everything I cared for- you! Somehow I'm going to... I'm going to make you pay! I'm going to get it back! I don't know how. I don't know why- b-b-but some how!" He backs away a little, seething, hackles raised. "I'll get you for this! I will! Mark my words!" back, back, back. An angry growl- not quite with it now, is he. Suddenly... suddenly it all melts away. His shoulders slump and he just collapses, sobbing into his paws. No meaning or explanation is given, he just does it. Wailing and howling.
Aquene, Den. Now. Of course. She had called for her Father and from there, everything should be fine. Other youths might have turned their backs on an outsider, but not Aquene. Father taught her that as her first lesson. She tred backwards, alongside her Mother and slowly into the den, her eyes ever-staring at Vincent. And she stared at him even more when he started sobbing. Whiney little runt...
Skelaghe wants to offer him all the consolation she has within her. Right now, though, she has larger probems. Problems caused by Vincent yelling and screaming while her daughter was right nearby. Helaku ought to be here soon... But he also ought to remember Vincent, so hopefully nothing bad will come of it. After he finishes backing away, though, Skelaghe turns, and she sees her daughter staring. It's about time for Aquene to receive a lesson in compassion. "Go." She'll be right behind the girl.
Vincent calms himself after a time, then just goes completely limp, eyes closed, not moving at all. Quiet sobs are all that escape him, just curled up in a little ball on the ground, his tail wrapped around his head. Well... hmm.