Post by Therdde on Jun 25, 2011 4:16:53 GMT -5
Characters:
Skahla
Wachiwa
Kezhekoni
- Hilltop Vista -
There is a new, heavy weight on the young adult's shoulders. This is far different than the attitude-inducing heightened responsibility he took on when he reached his second year. This is all abnormally... real. His decisions have genuine consequences now, since his parents are not here to let him and everyone else know he is being an idiot and that if he doesn't change his mind, he'll just have it changed for him. Having returned from a trip that did, in fact, reveal a body, though not the body they'd been searching for, for only a few short hours, Skahla finds himself somewhat lost as to what to do next. There is a nagging voice in his head that tells him someone will have to finish the task his parents began and go out to hunt, but how is he meant to hunt at a time like this? So, instead, he lies on the ground, staring at the entrance to the den.
Lucky for Skahla, there is Wachiwa! ... Well, no, wait, not lucky. The She-wolf is sort of.. in shock. What's she supposed to do now? Her mentor and adoptive parents are gone. And now everything is suddenly /real/. There are decisions to be /made/. Skahla's in charge, Shawnee's no longer just her sister, but her Alpha. and then there's Tala and Ikuna to worry about. They're going to need SOMEONE to watch over them, and she can tell, walking along in a lazy pace in a circle about the den sight, that Skahla probably isn't going to be much help in that area... So.. diverting from her round and round course, she starts his way, murmuring, "Skahla, uh.. I mean.. Alpha, Sir.. uhm.. If you want someone to break the news to Ikuna and Tala.. I could try..?"
It feels as if time itself has ceased to exist, the entire day frozen in a tapestry of summer-bright skies and warm, sweet-smelling grass, but that is shock at work. The wind still blows, the sun continues to inch westward and the shadows with it; Kezhekoni simply hasn't taken notice of it. Although she has long since begun a meandering trek back to the hill, where a small eternity ago--a matter of hours, perhaps--both Wyanet and Hahtalekin had been alive and well and oblivious to fate, the scent of blood still haunts her nostrils. She approaches with a mouth as empty of food as Skahla's, her head and ears low.
Skahla does not focus his gaze on Wachiwa, but he is quick to address her. "Don't. Do that." He is not, of course, addressing her offer to talk with his younger siblings, though that may not be immediately apparent. Rather, he is referring to the way his mate's sister addresses him. "I'm not... I'm not my parents, Wachiwa." But how can he argue against her trying to be respectful towards her alpha, since that is what he is supposed to be? Well, that one's rather easy, actually. "You never saw the other adults tripping over their words with my parents if they weren't in trouble, did you? The /real/ adults, I mean." As opposed to them, Skahla's generation, who may be full grown, but who are decidedly short on experience. Before he can explain himself further, though, his ears twitch in the direction of approaching footsteps, and once his gaze follows and settles on Kezhekoni, the new alpha stands quickly. And this is what he gets for his solitude for much of the past year. He is now in charge of several wolves he barely knows, and it is a situation that could easily cause him plenty of stress. This much, he knows.
Chewy winces immediately at the rebuke, before she gulps, and mumbles, "Yes, sir, I mean, no sir, I mean-- .. Skahla, I'm sorry, it's just.. I can't believe they're gone, and now you're in charge, and I still always see you as the puppy who was so GRUMPY all the time." She says, sheepish, yet also confused. She frowns, then says, ".. We'll figure things out, I promise," before she slips forward to try and nuzzle at his shoulder lightly with her snout. Since they're from the same litter year, even if he's slightly older, she still sees him as an equal. She probably always will even if she's confused! "You and Shawnee will be perfect leaders, I'm sure." she murmurs.
And it cannot help that Kezhekoni herself is not the most outgoing of wolves; while she's never avoided interaction with the rest of Ute, she has never been gregarious enough to seek out friendship with every member of it. Her fur carries traces that Skahla will recognize, at least, mostly from his own parents. "I'll not linger long," is her quiet response to the new alpha's sudden movement, maybe assuming that he won't want unfamiliar or mostly unfamiliar faces close to the den. After all, she has not been terribly involved with the raising of Wyanet and Hahtalekin's new litter--although shouldn't she have been, with the three of them so close? Ought she to have made more of an effort to surround herself with their family, to become a part of it, instead of remaining on the periphery of everything? She doesn't know and it makes more than her head hurt. Rather than confront the ache in her chest, she simply leaves it at that half-apology and pushes her nose through the grass, following a scent trail that will never be laid again.
"Hmph. I was never a grump," Skahla grumps as he responds first to the younger shewolf. He does not ignore Kezhekoni, though, even as she promises to keep her presence here brief. To the older wolf, he says, "Wait, don't... don't go yet. You were... friends... with my parents, weren't you?" Having avoided the affairs of adults as much as he could, Skahla can't say much more about this particular shewolf than that, but that is enough. "You're still welcome here. Everyone is still going to be welcome here." In other words, he has no intention of pushing away his parents' friends, even if he does not know them well, and has no personal reason to trust them. His parents trusted them, and that's good enough for him, at least for now.
Ears twitch, and Chewy looks to Kez, offering her a smile. "Yeah, you should stay. I'm sure you and Skahla could talk a while. It might be good for him to get to know some of his parents' friends. And you could tell him stories about them to cheer him up!" The ditzy she-wolf grins, then shoves a paw at Skahla. "Sure you were a grump! You're still a grump! But that's what we all love about you, Skahla, you're /our/ grump!" She grins, tail wagging.
Even though Kezhekoni's ears were low to begin with, speaking of unhappiness far more loudly than her low but controlled voice, they find another quarter-inch to sink when Skahla asks if she was friends with them. "I was," she agrees, lifting her muzzle away from the earth. "Your father and I were born in the same pack." Born in the same pack and driven away from the same pack, albeit separately and under different circumstances, only to reunite here of all places--and now this. Their history ends in a wash of blood, just as it had with her brother. Wachiwa's kind intentions, her attempt to lighten the mood, seem unable to penetrate Kezhekoni's morose shell; she twitches one of those flattened ears in acknowledgment of the other female's words (although acknowledgment of what, exactly, may be difficult to fathom), but that's all.
Skahla has heard things about the pack his father came from. Not much, and he could probably never manage to repeat any of it in any coherent fashion, but he knows well enough that it was not a good place. Though Skahla wants nothing more than to forget about all of this for a moment, to wrestle with Wachiwa for calling him a grump, and pretend that they still have the luxury of being carefree... he finds that he can't. Rather, he watches Kezhekoni closely, as though searching for something, before finally speaking. "Just before... well, before..." Before she died, but Skahla finds that he cannot say that of his mother, and so instead, he starts over. "It all happens for a reason, right? She was saying that. Mom. Someone told her that. It was... meant to be this way." It's terrible, yes. Skahla feels as though part of him has been hollowed out, and he's not sure he knows how to be what he wanted to be for this pack. But he's trying to find something that can be comforting to him, and hopefully to others as well.
Wachiwa sighs at Skahla's words, somehow knowing he likely feels the same way she, and a lot of the pack do; that there's something wrong in their life, something missing. But she's felt that way before... and she can no more deal with it now than she could before. She tilts her head a little, and offers, "Skahla... You know.. they're still with us, right? They're with the Great Spirits now," she casts her gaze upward to the clouds in the sky, "And they'll always be watching.. They'll always be there when we need them, as long as remember what they taught us." Sometimes, Chewy has her moments of clarity. This seems to be one of them. "... You know, your mom an' dad are probably really proud of you for stepping up like this. And you don't gotta be perfect. No one can fill their pawprints exactly, we're not expecting you to. You said yourself, you're not your parents." She smiles a little lopsided, and then pokes at his side again with a paw. "Besides. Now you don't gotta worry about them snooping in on you and my sister when you're off making smoochie faces."
Kezhekoni is not a spiritual animal. She never has been, whether due to her upbringing or her own natural inclinations. Sitiyok was killed and that was that, and now Hahtalekin and Wyanet, however much it pains her to admit, have joined him. Whether their encounter with that bear was predestined or simply the result of chance, it cannot be undone. Her outlook on death is murkier and less comforting than Wachiwa's, and if she had explained it--if they knew just how little faith she has in spirits--the agreement she lodges with those sentiments, if not the specifics of them, would be surprising: "They affected many lives. The legacy they created--all they did for their pack and their family--it survives and will continue to do so." That's as much as she can offer; she's close to this grief even if she hides it reasonably well. Down goes her head once more, sniffing, categorizing their scents as if, by giving them particular attention before they vanish, her memories of them will never fade.
He should be serious. For a long moment, Skahla wasn't even sure that he was capable of being anything but serious. Both of the shewolves have valid points, though, and besides that... "Chewy!" That's quite enough talk of intimacy between Shawnee and Skahla, thank you very much, and along with his complaint, he bumps his nose against Wachiwa with a little bit of force, and he manages a thin smile. Instead of starting a full on wrestling match, he looks to the older female again. "Thank you, um... I... Er. I don't think I know your name."
A smirk at Skahla, and Chewy wags her tail. "See, now that's what we need, more smiling, less grumping. You can't be a grumpy gus all the time!" She beams happily. Because, really, it's.. kinda her job, she figures, to be goofy when everything else is bad. Yeah. "So like, I'll break the news to your sister and brother, they seem to like me. Plus I'll take'em something like, a rabbit or a couple of mice, I'm sure food'll help them feel better. Well, maybe not right away, but.. If your mum's gone, it's time for them to start eating food that you gotta chew.." She frowns, nose scrunching a bit.
Kezhekoni may be in no mood to smile, and she may not be the smiling sort even when in a good mood, but she has not withdrawn entirely. She doesn't /want/ to withdraw entirely, not from the very legacy she just spoke of, not from the ties she may, potentially, have left to it. "Kezhekoni," she says, and: "You're Skahla." Either she was paying attention when Wachiwa spoke his name or one of his parents spoke it to her, likely as their intended successor. "We haven't truly met before, and for that I'm sorry." She is, genuinely. She doesn't add that she's sorry about Wyanet and Hahtalekin's passing, or mention how it's affected her--every line of her posture says more than verbal condolences. Then a frown comes to rest on her brow, concerned and startled both, as she glances at Wachiwa. "They're still drinking milk," she realizes, stunned. That makes the situation worse than it already is, if it's possible for it to get any worse. "If you'd like, I can catch something while you talk with them."
Can they even eat, yet? If they can't... well, then Skahla will be having a talk with Lupin. He knows that much, too. "Kezhekoni. Thank you for staying to talk, Kezhekoni. And you let me know if... if they do okay with food, okay, Chewy?" He has done the responsibility thing enough today. He doesn't want to have to deal with Lupin just right now unless he absolutely has to. Now that he has been given at least enough encouragement that he is not quite so lost, he would sooner spend a few moments to collect himself, in his own odd way.
"Don't worry, Skah, I'll do my best to make them feel better," Chewy leans in to lick him on the shoulder reassuringly, then adds, "You go find Shawnee, and rest. I'm sure you two are going to have to do a lot of stuff soon and it'll all make your head hurt, this being responsible stuff! I know being serious always makes my head hurt!" Chewy grins.
Kezhekoni's pale head dips, the gesture once more saying what words do not, and turns to leave. For as slowly as she'd arrived, she departs quickly--and with a new sense of purpose. For now she has something to do, and that brings a bit more life, a bit more focus, into her movements.
Skahla
Wachiwa
Kezhekoni
- Hilltop Vista -
There is a new, heavy weight on the young adult's shoulders. This is far different than the attitude-inducing heightened responsibility he took on when he reached his second year. This is all abnormally... real. His decisions have genuine consequences now, since his parents are not here to let him and everyone else know he is being an idiot and that if he doesn't change his mind, he'll just have it changed for him. Having returned from a trip that did, in fact, reveal a body, though not the body they'd been searching for, for only a few short hours, Skahla finds himself somewhat lost as to what to do next. There is a nagging voice in his head that tells him someone will have to finish the task his parents began and go out to hunt, but how is he meant to hunt at a time like this? So, instead, he lies on the ground, staring at the entrance to the den.
Lucky for Skahla, there is Wachiwa! ... Well, no, wait, not lucky. The She-wolf is sort of.. in shock. What's she supposed to do now? Her mentor and adoptive parents are gone. And now everything is suddenly /real/. There are decisions to be /made/. Skahla's in charge, Shawnee's no longer just her sister, but her Alpha. and then there's Tala and Ikuna to worry about. They're going to need SOMEONE to watch over them, and she can tell, walking along in a lazy pace in a circle about the den sight, that Skahla probably isn't going to be much help in that area... So.. diverting from her round and round course, she starts his way, murmuring, "Skahla, uh.. I mean.. Alpha, Sir.. uhm.. If you want someone to break the news to Ikuna and Tala.. I could try..?"
It feels as if time itself has ceased to exist, the entire day frozen in a tapestry of summer-bright skies and warm, sweet-smelling grass, but that is shock at work. The wind still blows, the sun continues to inch westward and the shadows with it; Kezhekoni simply hasn't taken notice of it. Although she has long since begun a meandering trek back to the hill, where a small eternity ago--a matter of hours, perhaps--both Wyanet and Hahtalekin had been alive and well and oblivious to fate, the scent of blood still haunts her nostrils. She approaches with a mouth as empty of food as Skahla's, her head and ears low.
Skahla does not focus his gaze on Wachiwa, but he is quick to address her. "Don't. Do that." He is not, of course, addressing her offer to talk with his younger siblings, though that may not be immediately apparent. Rather, he is referring to the way his mate's sister addresses him. "I'm not... I'm not my parents, Wachiwa." But how can he argue against her trying to be respectful towards her alpha, since that is what he is supposed to be? Well, that one's rather easy, actually. "You never saw the other adults tripping over their words with my parents if they weren't in trouble, did you? The /real/ adults, I mean." As opposed to them, Skahla's generation, who may be full grown, but who are decidedly short on experience. Before he can explain himself further, though, his ears twitch in the direction of approaching footsteps, and once his gaze follows and settles on Kezhekoni, the new alpha stands quickly. And this is what he gets for his solitude for much of the past year. He is now in charge of several wolves he barely knows, and it is a situation that could easily cause him plenty of stress. This much, he knows.
Chewy winces immediately at the rebuke, before she gulps, and mumbles, "Yes, sir, I mean, no sir, I mean-- .. Skahla, I'm sorry, it's just.. I can't believe they're gone, and now you're in charge, and I still always see you as the puppy who was so GRUMPY all the time." She says, sheepish, yet also confused. She frowns, then says, ".. We'll figure things out, I promise," before she slips forward to try and nuzzle at his shoulder lightly with her snout. Since they're from the same litter year, even if he's slightly older, she still sees him as an equal. She probably always will even if she's confused! "You and Shawnee will be perfect leaders, I'm sure." she murmurs.
And it cannot help that Kezhekoni herself is not the most outgoing of wolves; while she's never avoided interaction with the rest of Ute, she has never been gregarious enough to seek out friendship with every member of it. Her fur carries traces that Skahla will recognize, at least, mostly from his own parents. "I'll not linger long," is her quiet response to the new alpha's sudden movement, maybe assuming that he won't want unfamiliar or mostly unfamiliar faces close to the den. After all, she has not been terribly involved with the raising of Wyanet and Hahtalekin's new litter--although shouldn't she have been, with the three of them so close? Ought she to have made more of an effort to surround herself with their family, to become a part of it, instead of remaining on the periphery of everything? She doesn't know and it makes more than her head hurt. Rather than confront the ache in her chest, she simply leaves it at that half-apology and pushes her nose through the grass, following a scent trail that will never be laid again.
"Hmph. I was never a grump," Skahla grumps as he responds first to the younger shewolf. He does not ignore Kezhekoni, though, even as she promises to keep her presence here brief. To the older wolf, he says, "Wait, don't... don't go yet. You were... friends... with my parents, weren't you?" Having avoided the affairs of adults as much as he could, Skahla can't say much more about this particular shewolf than that, but that is enough. "You're still welcome here. Everyone is still going to be welcome here." In other words, he has no intention of pushing away his parents' friends, even if he does not know them well, and has no personal reason to trust them. His parents trusted them, and that's good enough for him, at least for now.
Ears twitch, and Chewy looks to Kez, offering her a smile. "Yeah, you should stay. I'm sure you and Skahla could talk a while. It might be good for him to get to know some of his parents' friends. And you could tell him stories about them to cheer him up!" The ditzy she-wolf grins, then shoves a paw at Skahla. "Sure you were a grump! You're still a grump! But that's what we all love about you, Skahla, you're /our/ grump!" She grins, tail wagging.
Even though Kezhekoni's ears were low to begin with, speaking of unhappiness far more loudly than her low but controlled voice, they find another quarter-inch to sink when Skahla asks if she was friends with them. "I was," she agrees, lifting her muzzle away from the earth. "Your father and I were born in the same pack." Born in the same pack and driven away from the same pack, albeit separately and under different circumstances, only to reunite here of all places--and now this. Their history ends in a wash of blood, just as it had with her brother. Wachiwa's kind intentions, her attempt to lighten the mood, seem unable to penetrate Kezhekoni's morose shell; she twitches one of those flattened ears in acknowledgment of the other female's words (although acknowledgment of what, exactly, may be difficult to fathom), but that's all.
Skahla has heard things about the pack his father came from. Not much, and he could probably never manage to repeat any of it in any coherent fashion, but he knows well enough that it was not a good place. Though Skahla wants nothing more than to forget about all of this for a moment, to wrestle with Wachiwa for calling him a grump, and pretend that they still have the luxury of being carefree... he finds that he can't. Rather, he watches Kezhekoni closely, as though searching for something, before finally speaking. "Just before... well, before..." Before she died, but Skahla finds that he cannot say that of his mother, and so instead, he starts over. "It all happens for a reason, right? She was saying that. Mom. Someone told her that. It was... meant to be this way." It's terrible, yes. Skahla feels as though part of him has been hollowed out, and he's not sure he knows how to be what he wanted to be for this pack. But he's trying to find something that can be comforting to him, and hopefully to others as well.
Wachiwa sighs at Skahla's words, somehow knowing he likely feels the same way she, and a lot of the pack do; that there's something wrong in their life, something missing. But she's felt that way before... and she can no more deal with it now than she could before. She tilts her head a little, and offers, "Skahla... You know.. they're still with us, right? They're with the Great Spirits now," she casts her gaze upward to the clouds in the sky, "And they'll always be watching.. They'll always be there when we need them, as long as remember what they taught us." Sometimes, Chewy has her moments of clarity. This seems to be one of them. "... You know, your mom an' dad are probably really proud of you for stepping up like this. And you don't gotta be perfect. No one can fill their pawprints exactly, we're not expecting you to. You said yourself, you're not your parents." She smiles a little lopsided, and then pokes at his side again with a paw. "Besides. Now you don't gotta worry about them snooping in on you and my sister when you're off making smoochie faces."
Kezhekoni is not a spiritual animal. She never has been, whether due to her upbringing or her own natural inclinations. Sitiyok was killed and that was that, and now Hahtalekin and Wyanet, however much it pains her to admit, have joined him. Whether their encounter with that bear was predestined or simply the result of chance, it cannot be undone. Her outlook on death is murkier and less comforting than Wachiwa's, and if she had explained it--if they knew just how little faith she has in spirits--the agreement she lodges with those sentiments, if not the specifics of them, would be surprising: "They affected many lives. The legacy they created--all they did for their pack and their family--it survives and will continue to do so." That's as much as she can offer; she's close to this grief even if she hides it reasonably well. Down goes her head once more, sniffing, categorizing their scents as if, by giving them particular attention before they vanish, her memories of them will never fade.
He should be serious. For a long moment, Skahla wasn't even sure that he was capable of being anything but serious. Both of the shewolves have valid points, though, and besides that... "Chewy!" That's quite enough talk of intimacy between Shawnee and Skahla, thank you very much, and along with his complaint, he bumps his nose against Wachiwa with a little bit of force, and he manages a thin smile. Instead of starting a full on wrestling match, he looks to the older female again. "Thank you, um... I... Er. I don't think I know your name."
A smirk at Skahla, and Chewy wags her tail. "See, now that's what we need, more smiling, less grumping. You can't be a grumpy gus all the time!" She beams happily. Because, really, it's.. kinda her job, she figures, to be goofy when everything else is bad. Yeah. "So like, I'll break the news to your sister and brother, they seem to like me. Plus I'll take'em something like, a rabbit or a couple of mice, I'm sure food'll help them feel better. Well, maybe not right away, but.. If your mum's gone, it's time for them to start eating food that you gotta chew.." She frowns, nose scrunching a bit.
Kezhekoni may be in no mood to smile, and she may not be the smiling sort even when in a good mood, but she has not withdrawn entirely. She doesn't /want/ to withdraw entirely, not from the very legacy she just spoke of, not from the ties she may, potentially, have left to it. "Kezhekoni," she says, and: "You're Skahla." Either she was paying attention when Wachiwa spoke his name or one of his parents spoke it to her, likely as their intended successor. "We haven't truly met before, and for that I'm sorry." She is, genuinely. She doesn't add that she's sorry about Wyanet and Hahtalekin's passing, or mention how it's affected her--every line of her posture says more than verbal condolences. Then a frown comes to rest on her brow, concerned and startled both, as she glances at Wachiwa. "They're still drinking milk," she realizes, stunned. That makes the situation worse than it already is, if it's possible for it to get any worse. "If you'd like, I can catch something while you talk with them."
Can they even eat, yet? If they can't... well, then Skahla will be having a talk with Lupin. He knows that much, too. "Kezhekoni. Thank you for staying to talk, Kezhekoni. And you let me know if... if they do okay with food, okay, Chewy?" He has done the responsibility thing enough today. He doesn't want to have to deal with Lupin just right now unless he absolutely has to. Now that he has been given at least enough encouragement that he is not quite so lost, he would sooner spend a few moments to collect himself, in his own odd way.
"Don't worry, Skah, I'll do my best to make them feel better," Chewy leans in to lick him on the shoulder reassuringly, then adds, "You go find Shawnee, and rest. I'm sure you two are going to have to do a lot of stuff soon and it'll all make your head hurt, this being responsible stuff! I know being serious always makes my head hurt!" Chewy grins.
Kezhekoni's pale head dips, the gesture once more saying what words do not, and turns to leave. For as slowly as she'd arrived, she departs quickly--and with a new sense of purpose. For now she has something to do, and that brings a bit more life, a bit more focus, into her movements.