Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:46 pm

Mae

While all the world grew cold down in the valley, the feeling of winter already permeated the air high above Reknab Bend. The peaks of Phantom Mountain breathed a white mist into the air as cold as ice, and while down below the winds were a peaceful sight, high in the heights a terrible wind was blowing....

It had been several months since the werewolf pack had been this close to the dens. After the hunter's attack, Kratos led the werewolves high into the slopes of the mountain, far from mankind. There they had vanished from the knowledge of all but themselves for a time. Yet, as the season began to change, their course shifted homeward, and thus they found themselves in the only area of the mountain still green with trees - evergreen trees, a place near Stone Arch peak.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:46 pm

Mae

"Why do you do that?"

Ulric looked up, surprised. "What?"

"What you're doing with your fur." Timothy said. He was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest. A cold wind was blowing down from the peak and causing the trees to tremble.

Ulric pinned back his ears and huffed an uneasy breath which floated like a cloud from his mouth. The attitude was as near to blushing as an animal might achieve. For a moment Ulric wondered what Timothy thought of him, but recognized that Timothy's tone had been sincere, albeit skeptical.

"It's eh... a sign." Ulric explained, tying the last of his wild mane into a ponytail on his neck. He continued. "A sign to our ancestors that we remember them."

Perhaps as a desperate plea Ulric glanced at Kratos for help explaining. The Alpha was lying in the dirt under a large tree, his mane likewise pulled back up to his hackles in many short bunches draped over his neck. He did not seem to notice Ulric's glance, so Ulric was forced to explain further.

"Our manes are tied with six strings," Ulric said, facing Timothy again. "Each represents an Alpha, who are our fore bearers and the descendants of Mávros Yiós."

Timothy gazed between Ulric and Kratos with a look of gloomy disinterest. Then he shuffled his feet in the foliage and turned his back on the conversation.

Ulric felt somewhat awkward and rejected, but he pushed for nothing and returned to his own business. Elsewhere on the mountain, the girls were preparing for the night, as tonight was the full moon. Ulric wondered what they might be doing, but he lost no time in his own preparations. Under the howling of the wind through the trees, he unzipped his backpack to replace his brush within, when suddenly several paper corners stuck out at him.

Ulric gave pause to consider the forgotten pages, then he gently brushed his clawed fingers through them.
"Hey, Kratos?" He said after a moment, picking up his backpack and climbing down closer to where the Alpha lay. "Do you believe in legends?"

Kratos tilted his ear back and lifted his head slightly. "I believe history embellishes the truth." He said nonchalantly. "Mávros Yiós is a legend to the Svalnaglas, yet in his day he was no more uncommon than a orphan in the west. Why?"

Ulric stared hard at the tattered pages before meeting the Alpha golden eyes. "Do you think the White Wolf is real?"

Kratos huffed a heavy breath and heaved his girth under his shoulders, lifting himself as he said, "I do not."
Then the Alpha meandered off into the woods. Ulric thought it likely that he was going to see to the women, wherever they were....

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:46 pm

Addie

"N--n-n-no! I g-g-give u-u-up!"

Bianca was laughing and gasping for air as her wet figure drew steadily away from the pool of water. Blonde hair was stuck to her face and her nose was perfectly red as a cherry at the button, but a great white smile adorned her face nonetheless. Keeping her arms close to her chest and chattering away, she looked to a branch where the rest of her clothes lay draped over. The shirt she wore now was soaked through...

Soon wet skin became wet fur, and Bianca was shaking her coat out like a dog before dashing to her clothes and ducking behind a tree!

"Aha, coward! You are a hen."

Logan called out after the blonde, a small smirk at the corner of her lips.

"Chicken, Logan! I am a chicken!" Bianca returned loudly.

"That is what I said... so you admit it, ah?" Logan cast her dusty gaze in Bianca's direction, but heard no reply in her regard; Bianca was muttering to herself about how a diet of meat was making her gain weight, how people needed vegetables and bread, and cookies and the like...

"In Blackridge... where it is much, much colder, before the lake would freeze over-everyone-mothers, fathers, children, would bathe in it, without clothes-it is to build immunity. I never had cold."

Logan blended in with the motionless stones on the far side of the pool, nearest to where the water trickled in slowly. If she was fazed by the frigid waters, it didn't show; her skin wouldn't so much as tremble against the cold, and even her complexion didn't seem to pale or redden for it. It was a solid testimony to her story, though Logan had never been the type to make up stories. On the contrary-she often had the scars to back them up, and boasted them quite proudly. It was her way of making small talk.

Returning, fully clothed and relatively less wet, Bianca stood at the edge of the water and began to work her hair into a ponytail, a piece of string draped strategically from her mouth. "Do you ever notice how Kratos and Ulric put their hair-er-fur, or whatever...into like.. tons of ponytails before the full moon? Why do you think they do that?"

Logan looked up to see if anyone else had an answer.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:46 pm

Kaqurei

Sabrina sat perched atop a large granite boulder, the sovereign of an ancient landslide that had spilled into the pool in days long forgotten.

Sabrina, with her back and shoulders straight, eyes sharp and focused as ever, sat cross legged, with one hand resting delicately on her knee and the other engaged in stacking smaller rocks and pebbles each upon each other in little towers. She had donned the form of a wolf already, and the breeze swept through her mane and her usual garb--a long white wrap, which now was only draped over her shoulder and across her chest and back--so that the ends and tassels danced in wisps behind her.

As usual, she was present, and yet not. A strange coldness had taken her in the months after the pack had left the den. She'd said little and interacted little... but now, it seemed, less than ever. She seemed... detached. Existing, but not engaging. Waiting for nothing. She'd avoided interactions with the Alpha, and did not seek out the company of others. Now, while preparing for the full moon, her green eyes wandered to Logan and Bianca. Her ears perked up at Bianca's question. Then they laid flat again and her gaze drifted solemnly back to her rocks.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:46 pm

Indy

Down the mountain slope a woman walked, her gate slow and measured. Her white hood was drawn. From her hips swayed two limp rabbits, tied at the feet by rope— the day’s catch, no doubt. Sometimes she would pause, as though studying a curious leaf or the thin trickle of the stream. Occasionally she would stop longer and lift her head as though tasting the air. But after each diversion she would merely shrug to an invisible audience and continue down a path she seemed to know.

Finally she stopped in front of the pool where two women splashed. The scene seemed to puzzle her and she listened… until at least a thin smile spread across her face, seen only in the crinkle by her eyes.

She pulled down her head, tossed the rabbits on the very same branch from which the women’s clothes hung, and unzipped her coat. She threw it carelessly down onto the slope. Her rich auburn-red hair burst free. Underneath she wore nothing more than a tank top.

“Same reason you braid your hair, Sunshine. Vanity”.

She offered no explanation as she pulled away the rest of her outer garments, no more clothed than Logan, and approached the icy water. There needn’t be one. She had seen a challenge and so she must meet it. If it was a competition of one’s tolerance, then she would win it. Briefly she glanced down at her bare arms, looking closely for the thin almost-faded white scars she knew must be there. But in the chill her skin flushed, her pale complexion betraying her in ways Logan’s would not. Nonetheless she jumped into the icy water without so much as a tremble.

Jackie stood motion less for a moment as the cold water lapped at her waist. The water wasn’t very deep here. She scrunched her nose, as though disappointed.

“Hmm. It’s not even cold. It’s practically a spa,” Jackie yawned listlessly, “I could tell stories about cold. I’d spit and it’d freeze before it hit the ground. The wind would chew through my clothes like they weren’t there at all. I survived months on a frozen wasteland. But this? This is a vacation"

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:46 pm

Addie

Bianca didn't seem satisfied with the answer, nor was she surprised at this point by Jackie's remarks. "I mean.." there was a retort to be made somewhere, and she thought of all the different ways she could insult Jackie's personal grooming etiquette, but she knew it would be in vain.

Her eyes went to Sabrina and her expression was saddened, her own ears dropping back and tail drooping behind her. She made her way to the stone where the woman sat and put a paw on it's cold side.

"Sabrina?" ears perking up, she examined the stone and tried to find the best way to climb up it. Sure, Sabrina was giving off an air of wanting to be left alone, but all the more of a challenge for Bianca to push past that. Personal space wasn't really her strong suite.

She straddled the side of the stone for a while, until she got some footing and managed to climb up. Sitting on her knees behind Sabrina, she reached up and put a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"What's wrong, Sabrina?" she asked quietly. "I won't pretend to understand, I have a lot to learn, but I'm here and want to help, if I can.."

Logan was silent following Jackie's comments, having sunk into her part of the water until just head head and shoulders were visible. She seemed thoughtful, watching Bianca invade Sabrina's solitude.

Then she sunk completely under and stood up in one motion, jet black hair falling like a stream of ink between her shoulder blades. Her skin had darkened at least two shades this year, by the time spent under the suns reach from dawn til dusk. In light of that, and her apparent lack of garment-albeit modest enough for the current company (undershorts and a wrap around her chest)-the many scars that adorned her body in stripes of lighter scar tissue were made apparent. There were marks about her left calf, some running long and others short, a gouge scar on the front and back of her right thigh.. there were two long stripes that stretched from her upper right rib-cage and ran nearly to her lower left hip, more faded than some but nevertheless present. The ever apparent shoulder scar, all along with several smaller, less significant marks on her torso and legs.

Stepping out of the pool, she stood just at it's edge for a moment, letting the excess water drip before going to the tree where he clothes hung.

"Jackie... you have not said where you are from." she called, not looking back as she pulled her shirt on, then her pants, tying them up above her knees.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:47 pm

Indy

Jackie grinned like a shark as she watched Bianca turn the other way, then slid further into the water as though to further embody the creature. She was determined not to let Logan better her in this invisible contest, and so she progressed slowly towards the center of the pool; slowly, only on account of the slippery algae that threatened to buckle under her feet.

She was almost disappointed to see Logan throw in the towel so soon. Until her eyes traced out every one of the scars on her dark skin, and her eyes glittered with half a question. She understood scars. Scars told stories and she thought she saw stories she had not heard before.

She glanced away as Logan retreated to the ground. She looked down again at her arms, but it was hard to see how many scars she had. She’d certainly earned many those three months ago, but so many had faded into nothing on her pale skin. Some scars she still recognized, from a life very long ago — those did not fade, as their stories had been written when she was still human. It was a disappointment not to write new chapters.

Wrapped up in her own thoughts, she almost missed Logan’s question. As it’s meaning sunk in, she offered a light laugh in reply.

"I thought I did? Or the first part, at least. Let’s see… Quebec Canada, Normandie France, various portions of Eastern Europe, a wolf pack in the Siberian tundra for six months" Jackie shrugged, "And here now, I guess. So here, there, everywhere"

There was no point in the conquest, so Jackie slid from the water and waded through the tall grasses just at the bank.

"Now tell me how you got that scar," Jackie pointed at one in particular that had caught her interest earlier as she wrung the water from her hair.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:47 pm

Cat

What? Toby's voice rang out quite suddenly from behind a large tree. The scrawny cream-colored male sat very closely against the trunk, hidden in it's shadow and nestled among tall grass, almost as though he were trying to disappear. He wouldn't have been seen at all, yet following Kratos' words, he made his presence known. His head shot out from behind the tree, ears forward and muzzle sneering slightly with indigence. The White Wolf is real! She's real and she's wicked, and her name is Sabrina! He snapped, then vanished back into his little fairy circle.

He continued muttering replacement curse words and grumbling about things; mostly the females it sounded like, but Timothy and Ulric's names were clearly mixed amid the grouching...

...And there were other sounds coming from the make-shift nook too: Small buzzing, quiet zapping, and the occasional loud click.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 3:47 pm

Addie

Logan listened intently, then followed Jackie's gesture towards one of her scars. She looked contemplative a moment, then puzzled, narrowing her brow. "I don't remember." she replied simply, then returned her gaze on Jackie, her brow still narrowed.

"Why did you move so much?" clearly perplexed. She took Jackie's clothes down from the branch and examined the rabbits briefly, before making her way over to her friend and holding the clothes out.