Forums

Forum Navigation
Please to create posts and topics.

Werewolves (RP18) "How the Mountain Greets the Moon"

PreviousPage 30 of 33Next

As Kratos stood, the wolfs' stance grew in aggression. Hackles raised and teeth bared, he took a step back but was clearly ready to fight.

I will not betray my alpha!" The wolf barked.

Light moved rapidly across Kratos' eyes as as his head came forward. His shoulders came up behind him and black fur spread over his features like water. His white hair seemed to become the red with which his hackles waved. In the same motion, his hand came down to the floor, and his long claws spread over the wood. His girth filled the space between the kitchen and the living room.

If Kratos was a sight in the magnificent masses of nature, then in the closed confines of the den he was truly enormous.

"If you do not speak his, or her, name... than your alpha will have betrayed you." Kratos said. His head was very close to the floor, but his shoulders were far above it. "Speak the name of your alpha." Kratos said again. Central to all else, above his claws on the floor, below his crimson hackles, were his penetrating yellow eyes which held focus on Saber's form.

The wolf did shrink as Kratos grew.

Fear mixed itself in with the anger the wolf relentlessly held onto. His dark eyes did show it, staring straight back at the giants yellow eyes. But beyond pulling back closer to the ground, his stance, growl and aggression remained nearly the same.

" I do not fear death," the wolf uttered. " I will protect my alpha from your kind till my last breath."

Kratos was pacified in the very moment Saber failed to yield his gaze, for in shrinking back and meeting the alpha's eyes, he showed his submission. Kratos raised his head. Then he withdrew his hand, and in the same motion relinquished his bestial shape. It fell away from him like the passing of the shadow of a cloud.

"You are speaking of your family." Kratos said. Though his voice was deep, it was soft.

Kratos then looked down, and slowly stooped. He lifted the meat off the ground. Then he looked at Saber as if to inquire, 'Do you want it?' 

****

Ulric glanced down, his smile never closing. "I've already been in one hole." He said, meeting Bianca's hands halfway. "So have you."

"Besides," he said, reminding her, "Those soda cans are a bit hard to drink with a snout."

Noticing the waning afternoon light, Ulric cast a glance skyward. "I think we should get back." He said. His smile faded a bit into an expression that anticipated whatever they would find on their return, but it was not without some hope for the night's outcome. The dawn of the moon was fast approaching, after all, and it brought with it a sense of renewal and the promise of strength long awaited. The last time Ulric had been able to take his secondary form was a full month ago... he wanted it, like a part of himself that had been sleeping. Never had he gone so long without it, no, not since before his first change.

Chapman observed the change of the atmosphere from within the cabin, yet it shortly passed by. He could deduce the cause of it with relative ease.

Kratos was doing work to both cooperate with and defy the creature these men and women were. It was an honorable life’s mission, but the success of it would be hard to measure against everything that seemed to press upon them from each and every side. Good kids, indeed.

The officer went near his car door, out of view of Tiffany, and waited… the new werewolf may not turn back until dawn.

***

Bianca smiled at the idea of trying to drink cream soda with a snoot. It wasn’t what she’d meant, but it was a funny visual anyway.

“Yeah..” she said, as an observation more than an agreement, and didn’t wait to start walking. As she did, she withdrew back inside herself like a little hermit crab.

When did I become so antisocial? She wondered. The same anticipation Ulric felt was a source of dread for her, and she wished the whole day—or the former parts of it, at least—could be erased from history.

The wolf's aggression simmered as the threat past, but he was still angry. He watched Kratos pick up the meat on the floor, once more the opportunity to attack while his gaze was not fully on Saber did present itself, but the wolf did not move. It was clear despite all his bark, he did not want to fight. But while the Alpha managed to finally acknowledge why the wolf was riled up, he did not seem to understand his urgency at all.

" I must return to my alpha," the wolf repeated once more. " I must protect my alpha."

Saber... Who was Saber? Toby searched his memory frantically to put a face to the name, but he couldn't. Then-- AH HA! There it was. He'd never seen him, except maybe fleetingly, but he'd heard his voice. He remembered that conversation that Sabrina was having with the kid on the other side of the wall once. But Logan's word had also thrown him. He'd forgotten that English was not Logan's first language, if indeed he ever knew to start with. Toby knew maybe languages, but he wasn't so fluent in them that he was able to pick a foriegn word out of a lineup.

"Oh! Well, that's very nice of you. I appreciate that." He said. He wasn't sure how well he trusted Logan's promise of protection, but it was very pleasant thought if true, and honestly the first he'd been given by anyone. He was feeling steadily braver given Logan's conscience efforts to not intimidate him. "Is... Is Saber one of those dangerous types then?" Toby asked.

Logan continued to observe Toby's demeanor for changes, but was pleased that he was beginning to feel more comfortable in her presence. She had indeed made a conscious effort to avoid intimidating him, and as has been noted, she often spent time away from the pack's dwelling places in the past, so that the younger members might feel more comfortable socializing. Yet it had made her a stranger where she might have sooner been a friend.

As Toby displayed trust, she was glad and eager to engage him more, but the last question gave her pause. She did not want to admonish Toby, nor make him feel little for the question, because it was sincere, and she admired sincere questions. She considered her answer carefully and finally spoke after a moment.

"I am thinking, that if there are none of these dangerous types, we would not have a pack." she said, but needed to elaborate, and was having a difficult time finding the words in English to convey it eloquently. She knew already she would not do her thoughts justice, but she would try. She took another pause to gather her thoughts and spoke again, slowly.

"I am saying... the world is full of dangers, yes?" she nodded with her eyebrows raised to better emphasize her point, "This is.." she hesitated, "a different danger, but still one of many. Kratos is teaching how to protect you and others from it. People who are not like us," that was to say, human, "-die every day, from many things."

"I am saying..." she said again, struggling (and certain that it would not be received well) "This world is not easy for any man, I think. You are right, maybe. He is afraid, fear like anger is able to be dangerous. We will help each other, yes? You are here - why? To teach or learn?" she asked, sincerely.

Tiffany breathed a soft, inaudible sigh of relief. She kept her eyes on the ledge where she last saw Argyros, but she slowly crouched down on the cement floor of the pit, sitting on the balls of her feet.

Silently, she longed to hear a word from Ami, but she dared not ask for it while the grey alpha prowled on the height.

*****

Ulric followed behind Bianca, at least until he could walk beside her. Then he half followed, half pulled her along.

It is a funny thing, to hold a person's hand. The end of a thought is often expressed in the action of the hands; What is imagined becomes reality through the work of one's hands. In that sense, the hands are an extension of both the head, and the heart. For blood, flowing from the heart, is either warmed or cooled by traveling through the hands. The hands, also, seem to hold some control on the heart, for in flexing the hands the heart picks up speed. When the hands of one person meets the hands of another, perhaps, their hearts and their heads do a little bit of talking.

Ulric wondered if he imagined it, the sensation that pulsed through his palms. For a brief moment, he almost felt as if he knew exactly what was happening in Bianca's heart. He suddenly felt her heartbeat as if it were his own, could hear her breath very clearly, and could sense every subtlety of agitation that passed through her. It seemed that even as Bianca withdrew into herself, Ulric, for a moment albeit fleeting, was fully outside himself.

Ulric breathed a sharp breath as his senses returned to him, but he disguised it with a sudden leap forward!
"Come on," he said. "I'll race you!"

*****

Kratos appeared disinterested in Saber's fears. He tossed the meat and it landed at Saber's feet.
"Protect them from yourself." He said. "If you go tonight you will become what you fear for them."

“Ulric, your feet!” She called after him, surprised-and picking up her own feet to run. 

PreviousPage 30 of 33Next