Post by maka on Jan 15, 2010 11:24:16 GMT -5
Wanageeska, Male Adolescent Wolf
Maka, Female Adolescent Wolf (Ute Member)
----
Wanageeska had not been seen since the encounter with Skelaghe and Survivor, having chosen to leave the territory since the Alpha had told him to stay on the border. Where he came from, that was a statement that said not to return, and so he wouldn't. Yet, the further he got from the inner portion of the pack lands, the harder it was for him to actually leave. The young wolf sat on the edge of the creek in the evening, the last rays of the sun filtering through the trees, cascading on him as he stared at his reflection in the moving water. He was stoic, regal looking in the sun, but stoic as he contemplating several things, the Tobba on his shoulder clearly visible.
Heavy thoughts seem to be a regular thing for the wolves who live in and around Ute, and that is something that still brings some confusion to Maka. As much as she may have been welcomed into the pack her sister joined, she's still largely an outsider, with little understanding of the exact structure and politics of the family she's found herself part of. Equally so, she has little idea that she's hazarding to the edges of the pack's territory. Following along the edge of the creek, the agile young wolf hops from rock to rock, looking down at the water below. It seems almost like some childish game until she crouches and leaps into the water, snapping her jaws shut on a fish. Even as it wiggles, slapping its tail against her face, she grins triumphantly and drags her damp self towards the creek's edge with her prize.
Wanageeska's long ears slowly shifted, though his eyes remained on the water. Here was a wolf whom had hardly any scent, masked by some means taught to him, not far from a young female. Just the opposite sex along often made Wan feel uneasy, as most female he knew were often harsh judges. Though, all the same, the presence of a female he tended to welcome because of the closeness he had with his mother, Wuth. She had caught a fish. Wolves knew how to fish here, apparently. And she had hopped rocks. "Impressive, how you move," he said softly...still looking at himself in the water.
The girl's muzzle bounces up and down even as the fish wiggles with dying futility against her jaws. She gives herself a small shake, white and gray fur moving from side to side even as her back legs twitch to send a few more droplets flying. "Mmm?" It's only after the 'water' dance that her ear turns towards the other wolf. Her amber eyes peer curiously even as the fish gives a few last flops, and then goes limp in her jaws. Setting it down on one of the nearby flat rocks, the girl licks at her muzzle and shrugs her shoulders slightly. "If you say so." Her nose twitches once, and her head tilts. "You must be the one Survivor spoke of. You really don't have much of a scent, do you?"
Wanageeska still kept his eyes on the water. Was he watching something...aside from himself? Maybe he was, or maybe he was simply admiring the mud and rocks under the water. He wouldn't be so vain as to merely stare at himself all day. "How intriguing that he speaks of me after I am gone," he said. "Not much of one when I wish it."
Maka doesn't seem to bothered by the wolf's strange behavior, apparently quite used to individuals who don't quite fit within the 'norm'. She places one paw on her fish and begins to tear flesh away from the bones, chewing quickly to satiate her stomach. Only after she's managed to dissuage part of her initial hunger does she look over at him again. "Is it strange for wolves to talk of one another? You're a stranger, so I'd guess you'd be big news. I'm surprised Wyanet hasn't told half the countryside that I'm here. Or at least half the males." She smirks a little bit, lowering her head to the fish again. "I'd like to know how you do that, you know. The scent thing." Direct, isn't she?
Wanageeska's eyes finally moved, falling on her. "Normally, wolves speak of others if they've done something extremely valued, or extremely awful," he said. He had to admit Maka was an attractive female, but Wan didn't exactly have interest in females. Matings were arranged where he came from, not naturally made like they may have been here. "I would tell you if things were different, but by oath I am forbidden to speak of my birthpack's tactics unless I've taken a student whom swears by the same oath of silence."
"Not where I come from." Maka replies, again shrugging her shoulders as if this were something she didn't find particularly bothersome. "Everyone talks, especially about strangers in the territories. That way everyone stays safe." She tears free the remaining flesh from the fish and then picks it up by the tail, placing it onto the ground even as she still chews, beginning to dig a small hole. "I could always just watch you. You'd have to do it sometime or another, or give it up completely until I got bored, or run away because some silly girl was trying to sniff out your secrets. That would be kind of funny." She muses, still digging with her front paws.
Wanageeska blinked softly. "Talking...back home, strangers whom failed to present themselves to the Alphas were slain on sight," she said. "that is, after Father departed on a quest." Now there was something you didn't hear every day, such archaic laws. This pack Wan came from operated on things much, much older and intensely outdated. "If it was a female sniffing out my secrets, you'd be the first." His tone was warm, but underlying it was something uneasy and shaken. He did, after all, just learn of Helaku's death and had failed the most-personal mission he ever undertook.
Maka lowers the fish carcass into the hole and then begins to scoop dirt over it, patting it down with her forepaws. She bows her head for a moment, mutters something under her breath, and then seems finished with whatever sort of odd after-meal ritual she'd just performed. Her amber eyes turn back to the black wolf curiously, "That seems a little silly. What if you just happened to miss the Alphas? Not your fault if they're off busy doing something else. Or you could just run. Wouldn't make much sense to chase a stranger and leave your pack unprotected." Her nose scrunches a little, not quite able to make sense of such strange and foreign ways. "Anyways, I'd certainly like to know how you do it. I've heard of wolves who roll themselves in horse dung to cover the scent, but you don't stink and the lack of flies suggests something else."
Wanageeska tilted his head. What would she know of how his birthpack worked? He closed his eyes and thought up the proper words to say. "When your pack is over half one-hundred strong, these things are possible," he said. "Five Alphas preside over my birthpack." This was not strange to him, no. There were four for a reason--two that worked internal affairs of a pack so large, and two that worked security; the last was the supreme Alpha. Not that she would know. "Rolling in dung is a way to do so, but then it gives a scent on top of another. If you wanted to stifle your enemy's nose, you'd soak yourself in the wet mush."
"I've never seen a pack that big." Maka admits, licking at the inside of her forepaw and then using it to brush along her muzzle and clean away the fishy residue. "The elder taught us that when a pack gets too large, it becomes a burden on the land. After a point, there are too many mouths to feed. Rather than killing the weak or injured and keeping the herds strong, the pack starts killing the breeders and the herd suffers." She speaks as if this were some old childhood lesson, but without any condemnation of that way of living. "You must have had pretty large herds to support such a pack. Seems strange to come all the way out here if things are so plentiful there." Her head tilts a little, one ear flopping over to the side to show her curiousity. "Survivor had said you were looking for someone, though. Did you find them?"
Wanageeska tilted his head the other way as she spoke. What she said was true. His birthpack did have the resources to sustain itself, but about leaving them...that was another thing entirely. "Such things are bountiful, but I left for my own reasons and partly out of duty," he said. "I found one I saught, but not the other. I failed, and that was that." He went back to looking down into the water as a fish swam by. "I am saving my strength for the journey home. I only just arrived here, but there is nothing for me here. The Alpha does not want me on her land by decree of border-talk."
"Duty?" Maka asks, taking a few steps towards the other wolf now that her grooming is finished. "What sort of duty would compell you to leave your birthpack to come all the way out here?" Her tail swishes slightly behind her, "It must have been far away. I didn't encounter any pack like that in my travels." She admits, looking out into the distance for a moment before twitching her nose at the dark wolf again. "So what happens now that you've failed? You just go home?"
"To find our beloved Alpha," he answered. "But he has died. I was too late." He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the water, ears half lowered. "I should return home, as it is expected but not required. If I do, my Tobba and Lunai on my shoulder will be taken, my rank removed, my place in the pack abolished, and I will be beaten for the dishonor of permitting the passing away of our Alpha...my father...although it is entirely beyond my control. Outcast. It is something I'm willing to face. My father would have faced it if he had been in my position."
"Your pack's Alpha was an Ute?" Now Maka really is confused and it shows in the set of her jaw and the mismatched angle of her ears. She settles herself to her haunches, tail swishing next to her leg. "So they expected you to bring him back? If he was part of another pack, I'd say it's safe to assume he wouldn't want to be brought back." She lets a breath out through her nose. "Ever think that maybe they set you up to fail? Seems that way to me." She shrugs again, and listens to the consequences of such failure. It doesn't seem to surprise her, perhaps due to the harsh nature of his birthpack that he'd already admitted to. "Well, why go back then? I wouldn't if it were me. It's not brave, it's stupid."
"His name was Helaku," he answered. "A member of the original Ute whom was also sent on a quest by his Alpha to save the pack from disease. He found the cure, but not in time. His punishment was seeing his land dry, shrivel into a deathland. He was then capture by humans and brought to the place of my birth. Then, after some time, ventured back here. He said he'd return, but never did." Wan stood and stretched his limbs. This talk wasn't exactly good for him, and his stoic features, hiding his inner emotion, was starting to crack. "But he is dead now. Those are the words of Skelaghe. Unless for...some unknown reason...she changes her mind, there is no where else for me to go."
"Helaku." Maka says the name as if trying to gleam some sort of information about the wolf through it. When that seems to fail her, she just listens to the story offered to her, ears perked. "Hrm. Listen. I don't know anything about your birthpack, but wolves die all the time. If he hadn't returned, it meant either he didn't want to return, or he'd died. Either way, they were asking you to do somethimg impossible." Her tail tucks against her side, ears sliding back along her skull. "As for you... Just because the Alpha here turns you away, doesn't mean you have no where to go. I passed a couple of packs on my way here. You could always see if you could join them. It's a big world. There has to be a place out there for you somewhere."
"My pack wanted to know what became of him. This is why I was sent," he said. "He gave my mother the directions and she gave them to me." He looked down at the creek again, wrinkling his nose. "Ute is..the closest I would have gotten to him since I last saw him as a pup. The other packs here mean nothing to me." Was turned to walk towards the shrubs, but paused before he disappeared through them. "...Your company has been pleasant. I won't forget it."
Confusion once again shows on Maka's features, but she makes no motion to follow the black wolf once he begins to walk away. "If that's all they wanted to know, then you haven't failed." Her brows knit together, and she simply shakes her head from side to side. Perhaps this was one of those things that her mother would have said 'you'll understand when you're older'. She doesn't seem to be able to find words to say, so the young wolf just nods her head once before getting to her feet and turning herself back towards the Ute territory.
Maka, Female Adolescent Wolf (Ute Member)
----
Wanageeska had not been seen since the encounter with Skelaghe and Survivor, having chosen to leave the territory since the Alpha had told him to stay on the border. Where he came from, that was a statement that said not to return, and so he wouldn't. Yet, the further he got from the inner portion of the pack lands, the harder it was for him to actually leave. The young wolf sat on the edge of the creek in the evening, the last rays of the sun filtering through the trees, cascading on him as he stared at his reflection in the moving water. He was stoic, regal looking in the sun, but stoic as he contemplating several things, the Tobba on his shoulder clearly visible.
Heavy thoughts seem to be a regular thing for the wolves who live in and around Ute, and that is something that still brings some confusion to Maka. As much as she may have been welcomed into the pack her sister joined, she's still largely an outsider, with little understanding of the exact structure and politics of the family she's found herself part of. Equally so, she has little idea that she's hazarding to the edges of the pack's territory. Following along the edge of the creek, the agile young wolf hops from rock to rock, looking down at the water below. It seems almost like some childish game until she crouches and leaps into the water, snapping her jaws shut on a fish. Even as it wiggles, slapping its tail against her face, she grins triumphantly and drags her damp self towards the creek's edge with her prize.
Wanageeska's long ears slowly shifted, though his eyes remained on the water. Here was a wolf whom had hardly any scent, masked by some means taught to him, not far from a young female. Just the opposite sex along often made Wan feel uneasy, as most female he knew were often harsh judges. Though, all the same, the presence of a female he tended to welcome because of the closeness he had with his mother, Wuth. She had caught a fish. Wolves knew how to fish here, apparently. And she had hopped rocks. "Impressive, how you move," he said softly...still looking at himself in the water.
The girl's muzzle bounces up and down even as the fish wiggles with dying futility against her jaws. She gives herself a small shake, white and gray fur moving from side to side even as her back legs twitch to send a few more droplets flying. "Mmm?" It's only after the 'water' dance that her ear turns towards the other wolf. Her amber eyes peer curiously even as the fish gives a few last flops, and then goes limp in her jaws. Setting it down on one of the nearby flat rocks, the girl licks at her muzzle and shrugs her shoulders slightly. "If you say so." Her nose twitches once, and her head tilts. "You must be the one Survivor spoke of. You really don't have much of a scent, do you?"
Wanageeska still kept his eyes on the water. Was he watching something...aside from himself? Maybe he was, or maybe he was simply admiring the mud and rocks under the water. He wouldn't be so vain as to merely stare at himself all day. "How intriguing that he speaks of me after I am gone," he said. "Not much of one when I wish it."
Maka doesn't seem to bothered by the wolf's strange behavior, apparently quite used to individuals who don't quite fit within the 'norm'. She places one paw on her fish and begins to tear flesh away from the bones, chewing quickly to satiate her stomach. Only after she's managed to dissuage part of her initial hunger does she look over at him again. "Is it strange for wolves to talk of one another? You're a stranger, so I'd guess you'd be big news. I'm surprised Wyanet hasn't told half the countryside that I'm here. Or at least half the males." She smirks a little bit, lowering her head to the fish again. "I'd like to know how you do that, you know. The scent thing." Direct, isn't she?
Wanageeska's eyes finally moved, falling on her. "Normally, wolves speak of others if they've done something extremely valued, or extremely awful," he said. He had to admit Maka was an attractive female, but Wan didn't exactly have interest in females. Matings were arranged where he came from, not naturally made like they may have been here. "I would tell you if things were different, but by oath I am forbidden to speak of my birthpack's tactics unless I've taken a student whom swears by the same oath of silence."
"Not where I come from." Maka replies, again shrugging her shoulders as if this were something she didn't find particularly bothersome. "Everyone talks, especially about strangers in the territories. That way everyone stays safe." She tears free the remaining flesh from the fish and then picks it up by the tail, placing it onto the ground even as she still chews, beginning to dig a small hole. "I could always just watch you. You'd have to do it sometime or another, or give it up completely until I got bored, or run away because some silly girl was trying to sniff out your secrets. That would be kind of funny." She muses, still digging with her front paws.
Wanageeska blinked softly. "Talking...back home, strangers whom failed to present themselves to the Alphas were slain on sight," she said. "that is, after Father departed on a quest." Now there was something you didn't hear every day, such archaic laws. This pack Wan came from operated on things much, much older and intensely outdated. "If it was a female sniffing out my secrets, you'd be the first." His tone was warm, but underlying it was something uneasy and shaken. He did, after all, just learn of Helaku's death and had failed the most-personal mission he ever undertook.
Maka lowers the fish carcass into the hole and then begins to scoop dirt over it, patting it down with her forepaws. She bows her head for a moment, mutters something under her breath, and then seems finished with whatever sort of odd after-meal ritual she'd just performed. Her amber eyes turn back to the black wolf curiously, "That seems a little silly. What if you just happened to miss the Alphas? Not your fault if they're off busy doing something else. Or you could just run. Wouldn't make much sense to chase a stranger and leave your pack unprotected." Her nose scrunches a little, not quite able to make sense of such strange and foreign ways. "Anyways, I'd certainly like to know how you do it. I've heard of wolves who roll themselves in horse dung to cover the scent, but you don't stink and the lack of flies suggests something else."
Wanageeska tilted his head. What would she know of how his birthpack worked? He closed his eyes and thought up the proper words to say. "When your pack is over half one-hundred strong, these things are possible," he said. "Five Alphas preside over my birthpack." This was not strange to him, no. There were four for a reason--two that worked internal affairs of a pack so large, and two that worked security; the last was the supreme Alpha. Not that she would know. "Rolling in dung is a way to do so, but then it gives a scent on top of another. If you wanted to stifle your enemy's nose, you'd soak yourself in the wet mush."
"I've never seen a pack that big." Maka admits, licking at the inside of her forepaw and then using it to brush along her muzzle and clean away the fishy residue. "The elder taught us that when a pack gets too large, it becomes a burden on the land. After a point, there are too many mouths to feed. Rather than killing the weak or injured and keeping the herds strong, the pack starts killing the breeders and the herd suffers." She speaks as if this were some old childhood lesson, but without any condemnation of that way of living. "You must have had pretty large herds to support such a pack. Seems strange to come all the way out here if things are so plentiful there." Her head tilts a little, one ear flopping over to the side to show her curiousity. "Survivor had said you were looking for someone, though. Did you find them?"
Wanageeska tilted his head the other way as she spoke. What she said was true. His birthpack did have the resources to sustain itself, but about leaving them...that was another thing entirely. "Such things are bountiful, but I left for my own reasons and partly out of duty," he said. "I found one I saught, but not the other. I failed, and that was that." He went back to looking down into the water as a fish swam by. "I am saving my strength for the journey home. I only just arrived here, but there is nothing for me here. The Alpha does not want me on her land by decree of border-talk."
"Duty?" Maka asks, taking a few steps towards the other wolf now that her grooming is finished. "What sort of duty would compell you to leave your birthpack to come all the way out here?" Her tail swishes slightly behind her, "It must have been far away. I didn't encounter any pack like that in my travels." She admits, looking out into the distance for a moment before twitching her nose at the dark wolf again. "So what happens now that you've failed? You just go home?"
"To find our beloved Alpha," he answered. "But he has died. I was too late." He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the water, ears half lowered. "I should return home, as it is expected but not required. If I do, my Tobba and Lunai on my shoulder will be taken, my rank removed, my place in the pack abolished, and I will be beaten for the dishonor of permitting the passing away of our Alpha...my father...although it is entirely beyond my control. Outcast. It is something I'm willing to face. My father would have faced it if he had been in my position."
"Your pack's Alpha was an Ute?" Now Maka really is confused and it shows in the set of her jaw and the mismatched angle of her ears. She settles herself to her haunches, tail swishing next to her leg. "So they expected you to bring him back? If he was part of another pack, I'd say it's safe to assume he wouldn't want to be brought back." She lets a breath out through her nose. "Ever think that maybe they set you up to fail? Seems that way to me." She shrugs again, and listens to the consequences of such failure. It doesn't seem to surprise her, perhaps due to the harsh nature of his birthpack that he'd already admitted to. "Well, why go back then? I wouldn't if it were me. It's not brave, it's stupid."
"His name was Helaku," he answered. "A member of the original Ute whom was also sent on a quest by his Alpha to save the pack from disease. He found the cure, but not in time. His punishment was seeing his land dry, shrivel into a deathland. He was then capture by humans and brought to the place of my birth. Then, after some time, ventured back here. He said he'd return, but never did." Wan stood and stretched his limbs. This talk wasn't exactly good for him, and his stoic features, hiding his inner emotion, was starting to crack. "But he is dead now. Those are the words of Skelaghe. Unless for...some unknown reason...she changes her mind, there is no where else for me to go."
"Helaku." Maka says the name as if trying to gleam some sort of information about the wolf through it. When that seems to fail her, she just listens to the story offered to her, ears perked. "Hrm. Listen. I don't know anything about your birthpack, but wolves die all the time. If he hadn't returned, it meant either he didn't want to return, or he'd died. Either way, they were asking you to do somethimg impossible." Her tail tucks against her side, ears sliding back along her skull. "As for you... Just because the Alpha here turns you away, doesn't mean you have no where to go. I passed a couple of packs on my way here. You could always see if you could join them. It's a big world. There has to be a place out there for you somewhere."
"My pack wanted to know what became of him. This is why I was sent," he said. "He gave my mother the directions and she gave them to me." He looked down at the creek again, wrinkling his nose. "Ute is..the closest I would have gotten to him since I last saw him as a pup. The other packs here mean nothing to me." Was turned to walk towards the shrubs, but paused before he disappeared through them. "...Your company has been pleasant. I won't forget it."
Confusion once again shows on Maka's features, but she makes no motion to follow the black wolf once he begins to walk away. "If that's all they wanted to know, then you haven't failed." Her brows knit together, and she simply shakes her head from side to side. Perhaps this was one of those things that her mother would have said 'you'll understand when you're older'. She doesn't seem to be able to find words to say, so the young wolf just nods her head once before getting to her feet and turning herself back towards the Ute territory.