Her Conjecture

[Shatila]

And I can cry for the reasons that I'm there
Not for the all things that are happening at home
The church was filled but I was still alone
But this is not a ploy to gain some sympathy
I made this bed and now it's time to sleep

The figures of knotted and bare branches dabbed the nighttime sky, already a deep indigo but alight with the sprinklings of a thousand stars. Noiseless peace passed across the Listern lands like a ghost. Once in a while a gelid wind whisked the treetops into a creaking frenzy before there was stillness all over again. And finally a song flowered from the quiet.

Silence withered as the song blossomed into a beautifully mournful howl, though it actually was a rapturous incantation for the lunar diety Tor. The deep vocals feathered across the dark heavens, slicing the crisp winter atmosphere as the cry resonated with a clear yet cosmic ache. The nocturne, belonging to only a mist-draped shadow, glittered of twilight itself until the hush of darkness expanded with the deteriorating howl.

Shatila had now “returned” to List for a total of two humiliating times. On her first return she was still a cub that had merely wandered a way for a couple of moons, brokenhearted with the recent loss of Bila. But this time Shatila was a handsomely grown adult, rugged aside from that slight curve to her muzzle and her dainty paws, very much her mother’s and full of tentative optimism. The ebony female, developed hardy and strong like her father, was hopefully going to rejoin her pack and stay in place. In the night’s lonely gloom, she could not hold back a howl every so often.

The wind, a tremor across her onyx pelt, swept past her and carried her scent further into the pack terrain. She slipped diagonally, the wolven ripple of her spine as she trotted clear, across the boundaries. As Lyft had trained her, she did not stalk the shadows nor weave the forest: she was the shadows and she was the forest. Little did she know, many others were taking this same trip into List...

//Obviously nothing stellar, but I tried. xD Lyrics from Her Space Holida//

[Sudak]

The ghost like figure of Sudak lay on his stomach with his head lying gently on his paws, dark hues scanning the horizon and tree lines surrounding the Listern dens. He lay waiting for the arrival of any of his fellow packmates yet very few if any had returned to the dens. Even the scents of many were few and far between as he had scavenged the area searching for the lost members. The breeze occasionally disturbed his resting pelt and moved it like the pine needles high overhead. Eyelids closing as another gust rose from the depths of the mountain forests he cringed shut with auds turned back. With the release of the wind the dragga rose to his large pads and gave a long, bowing stretch. He would take another run around the pack lands in hope to uncover another pack member or two still wandering.

After a quick surveying of his surroundings the ivory man darted through the treeline and brush. The lera darting with little to no warning every which way. The darkness covering his tracks he winded through the forest dodging the trees as they emerged one by one. Sudak knew this forest like the hairs on his maw. He could navigate these mountains with eyes shut tight though every run was different in its own way, new scents emerging constantly. As he approached the borders where he would begin his surveying he overshot a scent that struck a farmiliar nerve. He gave a quick turn around tearing his claws in to the terra beneath his pads. He padded back to the scent and surveyed the area. The scent was of a varg, there was no doubt. The mann could not put his paw on who exactly it was but it tore his mind apart knowing the scent was so farmiliar. Raising his auds and hackles in full alert he scanned his surroundings and sprang with earnest down the trail into List. His curiosity had been intrigued and he was determined to find this strangely familiar varg. His mind racked with the possibilities.