Post by tad on Feb 24, 2010 22:10:49 GMT -5
Starring:
Siwa - Female Juve. Wolf
Kezu - Male Wolf
Setting:
Wildwood Acre
==============
As autumn settles over the whole of Ute territory, this corner in particular is dressed to the nines in fancy fall colors. But it's not just the dazzling beauty of the leaves that has lured Siwa to wander through the wildwood. As she walks quietly and alone down a path that snakes between the trunks, her ears are open as well as her eyes. Her brows are gently furrowed so that she looks slightly frustrated as she pauses to listen harder.
One part of the land that a certain wolf has yet to encounter. And of course... is utterly unused to. Light pawsteps stroll between the trees, brows furrowing as the one called Kezu shoulders his way through the wildwood. ... It was much too noisy hear. He could hear the sound of snapping twigs in the distance... the rustling of leaves... Yes... Autumn had started. What was curious was the scent of Siwa here. He hadn't taught her what was needed in such a place yet, it worried him. Quietly, he continues his prowl... following that trail.
She is unaware of her follower, since it's not the snapping of twigs she's listening to but the muttering voices that emanate from every direction. The girl halts presently, her eyes shutting and her brows pulling closer together. It's /HARD/ to hear what they're saying, and she's afraid to go much deeper than just listening to the surface since once they become aware of her, she's sure they'll shut up. Trees are funny that way. For a few seconds Siwa even holds her breath, screwing up her efforts. "What are you saying?" she murmurs to herself.
And that voice is caught by those wolven ears, Kezu's eyes narrowing as he turns, sniffing at the air... and grinning as he spies Siwa a few trees down from himself. Stalking up, slowly... and surprisingly stealthily... he comes closer... and closer to the pup, hunkering himself down... coming oh so close... and if he is as of yet undetected... he'll lean down... and whisper in Siwa's ear, in a purposefully deepened, extra bassy voice that causes twigs to rattle upon the ground, yet speaking so low, it can't possibly be loud... "We said LEAF us alone, your BARK is bothering us~"
And thank goodness it wasn't loud. As it is, Siwa nearly jumps out of her fur in alarm though her recovery is quick. She catches herself just before she falls to the leaf-littered ground, and a wide-eyed look of shock is directed toward the older male. "/Kezu/!" she hisses, half amused and half still shaken up. "You oaf! What was that for?" Siwa instinctively continues to speak quietly, but she still casts a cautious glance over her shoulder at the nearest tree.
A deep laugh comes then, Kezu grinning from ear to ear as he watches Siwa nearly jump out of her pelt, chuckling to himself further as he reaches down, and rubs his paw over her back in a soothing manner. "Calm, Calm, I was just teasing, little one. Come now... what are you doing out here alone in the middle of the forest, where enemies could be lurking in the underbrush, or above in the treebranches?" A wink comes to her then, as if in a sign saying, as long as he's here, she doesn't need to worry.
Quirking a brow, Siwa glances up at the surrounding branches as though inspecting them for signs of lurking enemies - but after a second she catches herself and shoots a sidelong mock glare at Kezu. "I'd like to see the enemy could get past Mistress Wyanet on the border. Besides, I ain't got any enemies." She sits back on her haunches, the better to be able to look aaall the way up at his face. "I'm just walking. Trying to listen to the trees a bit, but they ain't budging. Where've you been?"
Kezu chuckles gently, and sits back down, licking one of his claws, and closing an eye, as he peers down at Siwa. "Hunting. Sitting. Talking. Hunting again. That sort of thing. Question is, Where have YOU been? I've missed you, little one." And his eyes close at that, as he smiles. Though, as the subject of listening to the trees sinks in, he peers upon the trees... chuckling. "... There are an awful lot of them, aren't there...?" As he smirks gently down at the pup. Perhaps there's wisdom hidden in those words somewhere? His expression would make it seem so.
Siwa smiles up at him; her annoyance - if you could even really call it that - at his interruption has completely evaporated. "I've been out with Quidel. He came by and wanted to spend a few days together just talking and getting to know each other. He's really smart. He sang a lot, too, some really pretty songs he says his ma taught him when he was a pup. It was really interesting." Her sharp blue-green eyes watch him as he watches the trees, and Siwa nods in somber agreement. "There are. And they're all /talking/ to themselves. It's strange, because it ain't /quiet/ talking, but I still can't make out a word."
A subtle chuckle comes from the wolf at that. "Oh really now? Well, I suppose it's a good think to know more about your packmates, no?" A smile at that, as Kezu looks amongst the trees... "... Siwa. Have you ever tried to listen to a crowd talk? Listening to the mass of moose as you ready to hunt them... or when 20 or 30 wolves are all rambling to one another as they get ready to go on an expedition?" A soft smile at that. "... You must learn to single out coversations. Maybe that's what's happening here... I mean... look at how many trees there are..."
Siwa falls quiet for several minutes as she things on this suggestion. She'd never thought about it before. She's heard of the rut the elk and deer make every spring, but she was just an infant during the only spring in her lifetime so the chance to witness the phenomenon - and to hear so many voices chattering at once - has been denied her. Also, her birth pack was much to small - only about 11 wolves - and none of them were what she would call verbose. No, the tree voices are the only time she's heard such a clamor. But there's certainly wisdom in his words and she casts a speculative glance at the trees. "But.. I don't know how to do that. Ma never taught me more than just hearing them all at once, however they want to be heard. The trouble with trees is.. they don't always /like/ to be heard. They're more private, sort of.. snobbish," she wrinkles her nose as she searches for the right words to describe the trees' demeanors. "Once they know you're trying to hear what they're saying, they shut up."
A hrm comes from Kezu at that... looking up at the trees... and stroking his chin. "It's a... process... I could teach you to listen to one conversation, and nothing else, but it's dangerous... you have to know when and why to do so..." A smirk at that, before leaning down, and nuzzling the pup. "As for them shutting up... Can only suggest you make conversation. Once they know you, they won't be so quiet." A grin.
Siwa sighs quietly, wishing not for the first time that her mother were still around to instruct her. But at Kezu's last words, the child looks up, her eyes glittering with sudden energy. "What? Kezu, you- you never told me you could hear them too!" she exclaims, tail wagging as she gets to her paws. "Why didn't you say something before?" He can teach her! It's almost like her ma is near her right now, smiling.
A blink comes from the wolf then... before he chuckles. "So excited..." He looks away for a moment then, Kezu taking a breath. She was so cute! It's hard to let her down! But... "... I... I can't hear them little one. But... That's just life experience. You see... some wolves don't talk much either... And prey? They straight up won't talk to you at all, just because you're a predator... But I once spoke my way through prejudice, and got a Moose to tell me exactly where her herd comes every year in the North. You just... have to make them at ease... I don't see why Trees should be any different. If they trust you, then they'll talk, no?"
Her excitement fades, as does her smile, and she sinks back onto her hunkerbones, biting back a sigh. She doesn't want to insult Kezu, or come across as ungrateful, but she was so hopeful just then.. Having someone close who knew the mysterious secrets that only her ma knew, who could tell them to her.. It would've been almost like having her ma back. Can't dwell on that, Siwa tells herself firmly, forcing her face into a small smile as she looks back at Kezu. He's still wise, afterall, and a good friend even if he can't fill that void for her. "You /talked/ to a moose?" Siwa is temporarily derailed by this startling piece of information. "How did you get a MOOSE to trust you?"
Kezu a chuckle comes from Kezu at that. "First, her calf was wounded. I brought her clean ice, and showed her how to staunch the wound with cold. Then I showed her and her herd where the best eating trees were, and after a week or two, told her exactly the route our hunting parties went. I liked that herd. I didn't want them injured." He rubs his nose at that, closing his eyes. "... And most importantly... I listened. If I didn't... how would I know her calf was hurt...? And how would I know that they were starving, and new to the lands? And how would I know that half their herd was lost to hunting parties...?" A smile at that, as he noses Siwa's chin up. "Do you still hear them... the trees...?
Siwa stares at him, feeling a mixture of awe and disbelief. She can't pretend she understands his motives for protecting a herd of moose from his fellow wolves, but it's beyond her at this point to think poorly of anything Kezu says. He did, as he says, learn quite a lot from the moose. Even with her limited skills at hearing the spirit voices, has she not learned things from them that have proved useful? She thinks of the falcon her grandmother found with the wind voices' help, and of herself when the river voices led her to Ute. There's no denying that listening to the voices has been useful, but neither the river nor the wind voices shut her out like the trees do. She folds back her ears, hesitates, then presses them forward again. "Yes," she replies doubtfully, and with a sigh of surrender she lets her mind slip easily back to the place where she can hear the trees' incomprehensible mutterings.
A chuckle comes from Kezu at that... as he sits up for a moment, looking quite... well, titanic in his stature. "... Stop." One word. One meaning. And he says it quite with purpose.
Siwa shudders slightly as the word washes over her, and the abruptness of it makes her look up at him in astonishment. For the briefest of moments, less than a second really, the tree voices fade away completely. After that second they return to their 'normal' volume - the volume they sustain whenever she's not putting her efforts toward listening to them - and then just as her thoughts shift back to them, and as soon as she remembers that she wanted to hear them, their sound seems to double. They're no more understandable, just.. louder. The whole thing is rather like listening to the static on a radio - now it's softer, now it's blasting. "That was weird," Siwa whispers, gazing wide-eyed at Kezu. "I.. I couldn't hear them at all for a moment. How did you do that?"
Kezu smiles warmly at that... shaking his head as his blind eye begins to open, pupil dialating. However... his pupil is not black, but rather, cloudy, misty... "... One lesson at a time, little one." As his voice slowly builds bass... and his stature seems to begin to fill all of existance. "Listen to naught but my voice. I am the only thing here... The grass... let it disappear... The trees... wipe them from your mind. You know not if it's raining... or snowing... if the wind is blowing... or if your paws touch the ground..." His voice, deeper, stronger, seeming to suck up existance itself...
Siwa shifts her paws impatiently, but obediently she falls quiet again. She fixes her eyes on his face, willing herself to focus. The harder she drives her efforts into listening just to him, the harder it seems to get. The tree voices are more distracting than ever, and every rustling leaf overhead seems bent on breaking her concentration. The strange timbre of the male's voice sends a shiver down her spine. Just as she finally manages to silence the voices again, just as she starts to slip toward that place of non-beingness that Kezu describes, the fear of losing control grips her and she panics. Just like that, the spell breaks. With a loud gasp as though she just plunged into ice cold water, Siwa returns to the present, and all the sounds flood back to throb against her eardrums.
And as Siwa comes back to reality, Kezu's frame seems to return to it's natural state. He's simply large, naught else. His eye is once more normal... his body is once more in place, and his voice is once more simply suggestive. "Oh Siwa... If you keep breaking out like that, you're going to give yourself a headache." A smile comes from him then, as he takes a deep breath. "Do you want to hear them? Truely?" A chuckle at that as he approaches.
Siwa has to bite back a whine as the sound of.. well, everything.. is almost unbearably loud for a moment before she is able to get her senses under control to quiet them. She's panting slightly now from all the mental effort, and real physical weariness is starting to pull at her limbs. An indignant huff answers Kezu's words. "Of course I do! But it's /hard/!" She resists the urge to add 'thank you very much!' but that'd be just her frustration talking. After a few second Siwa sighs. "I don't know what to do."
And almost all too quickly, Siwa's snatched up by the large wolf, and rolled over against the ground, the large canine laying right beside her as he puuuushes her gently up against a tree. "This tree. This one right here. Listen. Learn. Even if you do hear their conversation, only listen to their words, not the others. Pinpoint this tree. Make it louder. And louder." And he licks Siwa's head. "If you can't understand the words, find the emotion behind it. Does the tree sound upset? Does the tree sound in love?"
Siwa oofs as she's suddenly smooshed against the tree. "Kezu!" she blurts out, protesting feebly as her cheek is pressed up to the rough bark. Picturing what this must look like - a great big wolf putting a pup up to a tree with instructions to listen to it - she has to fight not to give over to giggles. Kezu's words are taken to heart, though, and after she sobers she applies her mind to trying to hear the tree's elusive voice. She's not sure this is even POSSIBLE. Ma never mentioned anything like this. Nevertheless, Siwa tries, if only to make Kezu happy. She squints her eyes completely shut and opens her ears, but not in the same way she's done before, not to just hear anything and everything in the area. She filters it clumsily toward the single tree he indicates. Maybe it's something about being pressed up against it, but some kind of invisible door in her mind is starting to open and through it come images. At first, it's just a couple of things. A bird, sheltering in a niche in the bark. Maggots squirming through their dark tunnels. They tickle a little. A howling wind, one that blows away the dead and dying leaves to leave her shivering and naked. Siwa shivers herself, but she doesn't stir from the tree's side.
Kezu keeps that paw pressed against Siwa... speaking no words... even holding his breath, as he wills there be absolute silence... watching Siwa... seeing her shiver... and suddenly getting the urge to cuddle the pup to warmth. But he doesn't. He waits.
The images are coming faster, more of them than her young mind can process. Now she's just getting colorful flashes, shapes and colors and sounds. They're all new to her of course, but they feel old.. ancient. Siwa can instinctively tell that nearly all of things she's seeing, this tree experienced long before she was even thought of. It's intimidating, like looking into the face of a hallowed patriarch, one who may be bent with age but has not yet lost that internal flame of energy. For a while, Siwa feels like she's drowning in the flood of the tree's images, and the tide moves so quickly that she's becoming hard pressed to separate one from the other or to recognize /anything/. Without thinking about it, Siwa automatically whispers, "Slow down." The images abruptly stop. In her mind, she feels the impression of some huge presence turning toward her, its consciousness appraising. The pup bites her lip nervously as the tree's consciousness seems to regard her. Then all at once a booming voice shudders down her spine. <HELLO, SMALL ONE,> the tree says.
None of this is heard, seen, or made aware of Kezu, he chuckling gently as he rolls his digits against Siwa's back, in a gentle, calming manner, before slowly... be begins to take his paw off... 'loafing' upon the ground as it were... he lidding his eyes for a moment, as he watches Siwa... and strangely enough... watches the tree... as if trying to listen to a conversation he was incapable of hearing. Only Siwa's words of 'Slow Down...' take any prominance with him, but he comments not, watching her... whispering to himself. "Best be gentle, tree."
A few minutes pass during which time Siwa is completely silent, her eyes closed and her expression unreadable as she remains pressed against the tree's base. Eventually she steps away and opens her eyes, looking a little shaken but otherwise alright. Carefully the girl moves back to Kezu's side where she sits, then quickly slides down onto her belly with a sigh. "That was interesting," she remarks almost as though talking to herself. "He was still pretty snobby, but he was at least interested in talking. He thought it was funny that I had to try so hard."
A smirk comes from Kezu then, as he reaches with a paw, and gives Siwa's head a quick ruffle. "It'll get easier with time, of that I'm sure. Experience gives ease." A smile from the wolf then as he looks to the tree, and peers, brows knitted, before smiling once more to the pup. "Well now, now you know how to concentrate upon but one conversation, no?" A snicker, as he rolls over, and spreads out his toes, ears flicking as he yawns. Sprawl. "Hrm... Siwa... Have you ever done the opposite? Like... trying to listen to water spirits when... it rains?"
Siwa - Female Juve. Wolf
Kezu - Male Wolf
Setting:
Wildwood Acre
==============
As autumn settles over the whole of Ute territory, this corner in particular is dressed to the nines in fancy fall colors. But it's not just the dazzling beauty of the leaves that has lured Siwa to wander through the wildwood. As she walks quietly and alone down a path that snakes between the trunks, her ears are open as well as her eyes. Her brows are gently furrowed so that she looks slightly frustrated as she pauses to listen harder.
One part of the land that a certain wolf has yet to encounter. And of course... is utterly unused to. Light pawsteps stroll between the trees, brows furrowing as the one called Kezu shoulders his way through the wildwood. ... It was much too noisy hear. He could hear the sound of snapping twigs in the distance... the rustling of leaves... Yes... Autumn had started. What was curious was the scent of Siwa here. He hadn't taught her what was needed in such a place yet, it worried him. Quietly, he continues his prowl... following that trail.
She is unaware of her follower, since it's not the snapping of twigs she's listening to but the muttering voices that emanate from every direction. The girl halts presently, her eyes shutting and her brows pulling closer together. It's /HARD/ to hear what they're saying, and she's afraid to go much deeper than just listening to the surface since once they become aware of her, she's sure they'll shut up. Trees are funny that way. For a few seconds Siwa even holds her breath, screwing up her efforts. "What are you saying?" she murmurs to herself.
And that voice is caught by those wolven ears, Kezu's eyes narrowing as he turns, sniffing at the air... and grinning as he spies Siwa a few trees down from himself. Stalking up, slowly... and surprisingly stealthily... he comes closer... and closer to the pup, hunkering himself down... coming oh so close... and if he is as of yet undetected... he'll lean down... and whisper in Siwa's ear, in a purposefully deepened, extra bassy voice that causes twigs to rattle upon the ground, yet speaking so low, it can't possibly be loud... "We said LEAF us alone, your BARK is bothering us~"
And thank goodness it wasn't loud. As it is, Siwa nearly jumps out of her fur in alarm though her recovery is quick. She catches herself just before she falls to the leaf-littered ground, and a wide-eyed look of shock is directed toward the older male. "/Kezu/!" she hisses, half amused and half still shaken up. "You oaf! What was that for?" Siwa instinctively continues to speak quietly, but she still casts a cautious glance over her shoulder at the nearest tree.
A deep laugh comes then, Kezu grinning from ear to ear as he watches Siwa nearly jump out of her pelt, chuckling to himself further as he reaches down, and rubs his paw over her back in a soothing manner. "Calm, Calm, I was just teasing, little one. Come now... what are you doing out here alone in the middle of the forest, where enemies could be lurking in the underbrush, or above in the treebranches?" A wink comes to her then, as if in a sign saying, as long as he's here, she doesn't need to worry.
Quirking a brow, Siwa glances up at the surrounding branches as though inspecting them for signs of lurking enemies - but after a second she catches herself and shoots a sidelong mock glare at Kezu. "I'd like to see the enemy could get past Mistress Wyanet on the border. Besides, I ain't got any enemies." She sits back on her haunches, the better to be able to look aaall the way up at his face. "I'm just walking. Trying to listen to the trees a bit, but they ain't budging. Where've you been?"
Kezu chuckles gently, and sits back down, licking one of his claws, and closing an eye, as he peers down at Siwa. "Hunting. Sitting. Talking. Hunting again. That sort of thing. Question is, Where have YOU been? I've missed you, little one." And his eyes close at that, as he smiles. Though, as the subject of listening to the trees sinks in, he peers upon the trees... chuckling. "... There are an awful lot of them, aren't there...?" As he smirks gently down at the pup. Perhaps there's wisdom hidden in those words somewhere? His expression would make it seem so.
Siwa smiles up at him; her annoyance - if you could even really call it that - at his interruption has completely evaporated. "I've been out with Quidel. He came by and wanted to spend a few days together just talking and getting to know each other. He's really smart. He sang a lot, too, some really pretty songs he says his ma taught him when he was a pup. It was really interesting." Her sharp blue-green eyes watch him as he watches the trees, and Siwa nods in somber agreement. "There are. And they're all /talking/ to themselves. It's strange, because it ain't /quiet/ talking, but I still can't make out a word."
A subtle chuckle comes from the wolf at that. "Oh really now? Well, I suppose it's a good think to know more about your packmates, no?" A smile at that, as Kezu looks amongst the trees... "... Siwa. Have you ever tried to listen to a crowd talk? Listening to the mass of moose as you ready to hunt them... or when 20 or 30 wolves are all rambling to one another as they get ready to go on an expedition?" A soft smile at that. "... You must learn to single out coversations. Maybe that's what's happening here... I mean... look at how many trees there are..."
Siwa falls quiet for several minutes as she things on this suggestion. She'd never thought about it before. She's heard of the rut the elk and deer make every spring, but she was just an infant during the only spring in her lifetime so the chance to witness the phenomenon - and to hear so many voices chattering at once - has been denied her. Also, her birth pack was much to small - only about 11 wolves - and none of them were what she would call verbose. No, the tree voices are the only time she's heard such a clamor. But there's certainly wisdom in his words and she casts a speculative glance at the trees. "But.. I don't know how to do that. Ma never taught me more than just hearing them all at once, however they want to be heard. The trouble with trees is.. they don't always /like/ to be heard. They're more private, sort of.. snobbish," she wrinkles her nose as she searches for the right words to describe the trees' demeanors. "Once they know you're trying to hear what they're saying, they shut up."
A hrm comes from Kezu at that... looking up at the trees... and stroking his chin. "It's a... process... I could teach you to listen to one conversation, and nothing else, but it's dangerous... you have to know when and why to do so..." A smirk at that, before leaning down, and nuzzling the pup. "As for them shutting up... Can only suggest you make conversation. Once they know you, they won't be so quiet." A grin.
Siwa sighs quietly, wishing not for the first time that her mother were still around to instruct her. But at Kezu's last words, the child looks up, her eyes glittering with sudden energy. "What? Kezu, you- you never told me you could hear them too!" she exclaims, tail wagging as she gets to her paws. "Why didn't you say something before?" He can teach her! It's almost like her ma is near her right now, smiling.
A blink comes from the wolf then... before he chuckles. "So excited..." He looks away for a moment then, Kezu taking a breath. She was so cute! It's hard to let her down! But... "... I... I can't hear them little one. But... That's just life experience. You see... some wolves don't talk much either... And prey? They straight up won't talk to you at all, just because you're a predator... But I once spoke my way through prejudice, and got a Moose to tell me exactly where her herd comes every year in the North. You just... have to make them at ease... I don't see why Trees should be any different. If they trust you, then they'll talk, no?"
Her excitement fades, as does her smile, and she sinks back onto her hunkerbones, biting back a sigh. She doesn't want to insult Kezu, or come across as ungrateful, but she was so hopeful just then.. Having someone close who knew the mysterious secrets that only her ma knew, who could tell them to her.. It would've been almost like having her ma back. Can't dwell on that, Siwa tells herself firmly, forcing her face into a small smile as she looks back at Kezu. He's still wise, afterall, and a good friend even if he can't fill that void for her. "You /talked/ to a moose?" Siwa is temporarily derailed by this startling piece of information. "How did you get a MOOSE to trust you?"
Kezu a chuckle comes from Kezu at that. "First, her calf was wounded. I brought her clean ice, and showed her how to staunch the wound with cold. Then I showed her and her herd where the best eating trees were, and after a week or two, told her exactly the route our hunting parties went. I liked that herd. I didn't want them injured." He rubs his nose at that, closing his eyes. "... And most importantly... I listened. If I didn't... how would I know her calf was hurt...? And how would I know that they were starving, and new to the lands? And how would I know that half their herd was lost to hunting parties...?" A smile at that, as he noses Siwa's chin up. "Do you still hear them... the trees...?
Siwa stares at him, feeling a mixture of awe and disbelief. She can't pretend she understands his motives for protecting a herd of moose from his fellow wolves, but it's beyond her at this point to think poorly of anything Kezu says. He did, as he says, learn quite a lot from the moose. Even with her limited skills at hearing the spirit voices, has she not learned things from them that have proved useful? She thinks of the falcon her grandmother found with the wind voices' help, and of herself when the river voices led her to Ute. There's no denying that listening to the voices has been useful, but neither the river nor the wind voices shut her out like the trees do. She folds back her ears, hesitates, then presses them forward again. "Yes," she replies doubtfully, and with a sigh of surrender she lets her mind slip easily back to the place where she can hear the trees' incomprehensible mutterings.
A chuckle comes from Kezu at that... as he sits up for a moment, looking quite... well, titanic in his stature. "... Stop." One word. One meaning. And he says it quite with purpose.
Siwa shudders slightly as the word washes over her, and the abruptness of it makes her look up at him in astonishment. For the briefest of moments, less than a second really, the tree voices fade away completely. After that second they return to their 'normal' volume - the volume they sustain whenever she's not putting her efforts toward listening to them - and then just as her thoughts shift back to them, and as soon as she remembers that she wanted to hear them, their sound seems to double. They're no more understandable, just.. louder. The whole thing is rather like listening to the static on a radio - now it's softer, now it's blasting. "That was weird," Siwa whispers, gazing wide-eyed at Kezu. "I.. I couldn't hear them at all for a moment. How did you do that?"
Kezu smiles warmly at that... shaking his head as his blind eye begins to open, pupil dialating. However... his pupil is not black, but rather, cloudy, misty... "... One lesson at a time, little one." As his voice slowly builds bass... and his stature seems to begin to fill all of existance. "Listen to naught but my voice. I am the only thing here... The grass... let it disappear... The trees... wipe them from your mind. You know not if it's raining... or snowing... if the wind is blowing... or if your paws touch the ground..." His voice, deeper, stronger, seeming to suck up existance itself...
Siwa shifts her paws impatiently, but obediently she falls quiet again. She fixes her eyes on his face, willing herself to focus. The harder she drives her efforts into listening just to him, the harder it seems to get. The tree voices are more distracting than ever, and every rustling leaf overhead seems bent on breaking her concentration. The strange timbre of the male's voice sends a shiver down her spine. Just as she finally manages to silence the voices again, just as she starts to slip toward that place of non-beingness that Kezu describes, the fear of losing control grips her and she panics. Just like that, the spell breaks. With a loud gasp as though she just plunged into ice cold water, Siwa returns to the present, and all the sounds flood back to throb against her eardrums.
And as Siwa comes back to reality, Kezu's frame seems to return to it's natural state. He's simply large, naught else. His eye is once more normal... his body is once more in place, and his voice is once more simply suggestive. "Oh Siwa... If you keep breaking out like that, you're going to give yourself a headache." A smile comes from him then, as he takes a deep breath. "Do you want to hear them? Truely?" A chuckle at that as he approaches.
Siwa has to bite back a whine as the sound of.. well, everything.. is almost unbearably loud for a moment before she is able to get her senses under control to quiet them. She's panting slightly now from all the mental effort, and real physical weariness is starting to pull at her limbs. An indignant huff answers Kezu's words. "Of course I do! But it's /hard/!" She resists the urge to add 'thank you very much!' but that'd be just her frustration talking. After a few second Siwa sighs. "I don't know what to do."
And almost all too quickly, Siwa's snatched up by the large wolf, and rolled over against the ground, the large canine laying right beside her as he puuuushes her gently up against a tree. "This tree. This one right here. Listen. Learn. Even if you do hear their conversation, only listen to their words, not the others. Pinpoint this tree. Make it louder. And louder." And he licks Siwa's head. "If you can't understand the words, find the emotion behind it. Does the tree sound upset? Does the tree sound in love?"
Siwa oofs as she's suddenly smooshed against the tree. "Kezu!" she blurts out, protesting feebly as her cheek is pressed up to the rough bark. Picturing what this must look like - a great big wolf putting a pup up to a tree with instructions to listen to it - she has to fight not to give over to giggles. Kezu's words are taken to heart, though, and after she sobers she applies her mind to trying to hear the tree's elusive voice. She's not sure this is even POSSIBLE. Ma never mentioned anything like this. Nevertheless, Siwa tries, if only to make Kezu happy. She squints her eyes completely shut and opens her ears, but not in the same way she's done before, not to just hear anything and everything in the area. She filters it clumsily toward the single tree he indicates. Maybe it's something about being pressed up against it, but some kind of invisible door in her mind is starting to open and through it come images. At first, it's just a couple of things. A bird, sheltering in a niche in the bark. Maggots squirming through their dark tunnels. They tickle a little. A howling wind, one that blows away the dead and dying leaves to leave her shivering and naked. Siwa shivers herself, but she doesn't stir from the tree's side.
Kezu keeps that paw pressed against Siwa... speaking no words... even holding his breath, as he wills there be absolute silence... watching Siwa... seeing her shiver... and suddenly getting the urge to cuddle the pup to warmth. But he doesn't. He waits.
The images are coming faster, more of them than her young mind can process. Now she's just getting colorful flashes, shapes and colors and sounds. They're all new to her of course, but they feel old.. ancient. Siwa can instinctively tell that nearly all of things she's seeing, this tree experienced long before she was even thought of. It's intimidating, like looking into the face of a hallowed patriarch, one who may be bent with age but has not yet lost that internal flame of energy. For a while, Siwa feels like she's drowning in the flood of the tree's images, and the tide moves so quickly that she's becoming hard pressed to separate one from the other or to recognize /anything/. Without thinking about it, Siwa automatically whispers, "Slow down." The images abruptly stop. In her mind, she feels the impression of some huge presence turning toward her, its consciousness appraising. The pup bites her lip nervously as the tree's consciousness seems to regard her. Then all at once a booming voice shudders down her spine. <HELLO, SMALL ONE,> the tree says.
None of this is heard, seen, or made aware of Kezu, he chuckling gently as he rolls his digits against Siwa's back, in a gentle, calming manner, before slowly... be begins to take his paw off... 'loafing' upon the ground as it were... he lidding his eyes for a moment, as he watches Siwa... and strangely enough... watches the tree... as if trying to listen to a conversation he was incapable of hearing. Only Siwa's words of 'Slow Down...' take any prominance with him, but he comments not, watching her... whispering to himself. "Best be gentle, tree."
A few minutes pass during which time Siwa is completely silent, her eyes closed and her expression unreadable as she remains pressed against the tree's base. Eventually she steps away and opens her eyes, looking a little shaken but otherwise alright. Carefully the girl moves back to Kezu's side where she sits, then quickly slides down onto her belly with a sigh. "That was interesting," she remarks almost as though talking to herself. "He was still pretty snobby, but he was at least interested in talking. He thought it was funny that I had to try so hard."
A smirk comes from Kezu then, as he reaches with a paw, and gives Siwa's head a quick ruffle. "It'll get easier with time, of that I'm sure. Experience gives ease." A smile from the wolf then as he looks to the tree, and peers, brows knitted, before smiling once more to the pup. "Well now, now you know how to concentrate upon but one conversation, no?" A snicker, as he rolls over, and spreads out his toes, ears flicking as he yawns. Sprawl. "Hrm... Siwa... Have you ever done the opposite? Like... trying to listen to water spirits when... it rains?"