The Son has Returned...

[Orion]

Every day haunted him. Every night chilled his very bones. Every dream was a night mare. Every nightmare made real. A family he once had had, seemed so distantly gone now. Their faces he could hardly remember.

Traveling upon long muscled legs a thick coat of ebony fur, the male varg moved. He was silent, a trait his mother gave him, but the muscles were all from his sire. Ice blue eyes stared out into the wintery air, as puffs of smoke billowed from his pulsing nostrils. The lands were close, he could taste them on the wind. The scents were so clear, so crisp...so forgotton.

Paw prints in the light amount of snow that had decended from the heavens were easily seen to dark shadow while he moved. His own paw steps were large, definatly that of a strong male. Would they recognize him? Would they remember him? Would they care?

Upon reaching the edge of List's boundries, the male stops. He pauses to glance over the darkened lands, the lands his mother and his father still ruled. His head raised, and that ebony shadow, muscles rippling let loose a howl that would have not been heard for ages in List's lands. The strength and ferocity of it shone through the note of mystery inherited by his dam. Orion, had come home at last...

[Bristol]

As dusk began to darken things began to quiet in the lands of List. The already rare lera were settling down for another day of migration or more feasting to last them through the harsh winters ahead. The wind stirred the fallen leaves and needles sullenly, calling out dully to those listening and whipping those exposed with bitter lashes. Like a specter it came and haunted Translyvania every year in the winter and with it came snows.

A single shape, in no way significant from his surroundings, lay beside a large evergreen. Rough black fur covered the figure but could easily be mistaken as some sort of undergrowth. But as one watched the beast moved. Gradually a head could be made out then paws as the putnar uncurled from his position.

Bristol yawned leisurely then shook his shaggy pelt, bits of bramble dropping to the forest floor. His off-hued cobalt orbs observed the land around him. Then a call arose to peirce the silence that covered List like a blanket. Bristol listened. The voice sounded familiar but he couldn't place it. The Dragga flicked his ears in annoyance at being disturbed but he lifted his cranuim and opened his immense maw to the heavens and let loose his own song. It rose and soon engulfed the very forest. Looking towards the boundrie line where the call had originated Bristol set off at a steady lope towards the intruder.

As the ebon male progressed he could see a dark form against the horizon. Another male varg, younger than himself, was standing looking over the terrain. From instinct Bristol's tail rose and his ears flattened against his skull. The Dragga resumed his lope but at a swifter gait. Soon he would reach the shadowy varg. As he climbed the slope the scent of his son reached him. Bristol looked warily at the varg. He had grown since their last encounter. A large dragga with the makings of an alpha. Bristol growled silently for reasons he kept to himself. Breathing in the air he came to stand before Orion.

"You return once again to List." The ebony Dragga growled. A smile slowly crept across his maw but disappeared before long. Bristol's tail swayed gently and could be mistaken for the wind pushing it. He was glad to see his son again, but why had he come back and where had he been? "I can see you have grown into a fine dragga." Bristol muttered.

[noveck]

Upon hearing the call that was sent up into the heavens, another varg lifted his ears for their was a confusing familiarity of the voice. The mystery that laced its powerful notes could easily have been mistaken for the enigmatic voice of the Drappa Fiory. But their were differences from this voice to hers, and as Novex began to stalk through the snow toward the origin of the wild howl, he was particularly disappointed when he could not place why he knew this tone.

Beneath the glittering light of the stars and the moon Tor, the brown, gray, and black dragga wound through the territory of List. Novex growled as he neared the borders of List however. That muscular, ebon form had commanded the call, had released it? And there was Bristol, standing next to the 'intruder', and Novex hesitated to go further for the similarities he saw between them.

"Orion..." He whispered to himself, staring across the baren white landscape before him. He had not properly met the young male when they had been younger, and so one reason for his lack of knowledge of who the song had belonged to.

Novex hesitated further when he heard the faint voice of Bristol's deep bass reverberate on the thin air, as if he shattered it with his strength. Novex growled irritably to himself and padded forward to come face to face with the Dragga and Drappa's only son.

"Hello Bristol... Orion." He dipped his head in greeting to both ebon Varg.

[Orion]

Ebony pistons lowered in respect to his father's pressence. Though his hues looked upon his sire with bold determination, that of a varg with strength and power, they also stared at Bristol with a sadness unexplained. A light smirk, resembling that of Orion's adolescence, an almost innocent sign of his growth, stretched across his black maw, those ears flicking foreward gently.

"A fine Dragga I'm not. But, I have grown I suppose...I have been far sir and I have beed wide. I've traveled the mountains, and valleys and hills of transylvania and through my questing...I've come to one conclusion." It was then that that note of sadness dripped from Orion's eyes into his voice, audible to the audience around.

"I do not feel I am worthy to call you 'father', nor do I feel worthy to be you and your mate's son any longer. I have shamed this pack, but I look to make amends." For now, Novex was ignored. All Orion was going to do, was talk to his sire, without allowing the younger varg he knew from his past to change his mind otherwise.

"I have come back...only to say my goodbyes once more. I wished...to see you again, to show you I am well, and how much I have grown..." His voice cut off, and those saphire hues glinted gently, ice cold and harsh in the frigid winter air. There was only a slight difference now, between Orion and his father Bristol, and that was the back of Orion's ears. Laid neatly to the side, showing his shame, Orion revealed his dam's pressence, a stripe of gold each on the back of each auditory. It was vibrant, if not surrounded by ebony.

"I...I wished also to say my goodbyes to mother aswell, but I have decided against that...Seeing her will kill my spirits for leaving again..Father...I will leave to join the feircest vargs in these lands, to prove my worth of your heritage and family tree. As of now, I am no better then a lost fawn from a herd of herla stags. I will prove my worth to you...I promise.." Orion's voice was heavy and thickly ment. His tone was strong, and his meaning was sincere. He saw himself as something of filth upon the lands he once played upon as a cub, and now he wished to clense himself of said filth, to prove himself in his father's eyes, and to show what a Dragga, he could be.

[Sudak]

Sudak had once again been laying among the dens of list. With his legs hanging helplessly in the air and his said layed upon the surroundings of the den walls. He took a deep breath as the breeze blew and as he slowly exhaled his auds perked to the disturbance among the air which he hadn't seemed to hear before. There did however seem to be some familiarity to the form of the call but the interference of the den floors on his auds didn't allow him to examine the call to the fullest extent. Sudak gave a groan as he rolled over to once again be upon four paws. He lay there fully alert on the cold den floors as thoughts raced through his mind. Could it be? The male cub whelped by Fiory and Bristol? The one whome disappeared just as swiftly as the stealthy shadows of the Transylvanian forsests?

Sudak quickly rose from his resting place to now become standing tall in the quickly rising darkness, if darkness could rise. Sudak was to take a step forward when he stopped and his head swung to face behind himself where he had just been laying. He padded up to the resting fae and lowered his nose as to touch hers lightly. Then he slowly gave her cheek a lick and before dashing off into the Listern wilderness left her with these words.

"Sleep peacefully my angel, there be no need to use any extra effort as much will be demanded of you soon."

And with that and a slowly rising smile Sudak dashed through the brush surrounding the List dens and vanished into the foggy darkness now overtaking the Listern lands.

After dilligently dodging limbs and sleeping, unaware lera Sudak approached the area he determined to be the source of the potential ebony cub, now for certain close to being full grown. Sudak slowed his pace to a slow pad as his auds detected the precence of his Dragga, and also that of Novex. Soon enough his thoughts were confirmed as he slowly crawled underneath the low lying brush surrounding the small clearing the two stood within. Orion stood strong and tall and Sudak found it hard to determine the difference between his Dragga and Orion. Only that of the voice and the very distinct makings upon Orion's auds, which Sudak had somehow overlooked the few months he had helped raise the Listern cub.

Within the conversation he overheard that Orion was to once again leave the List lands and to join the rankings of another pack. To continue the family lines and to make his father proud... to prove his worth to List. Sudak gave a smirk as he remembered the early days when Orion was just a cub. How he always was the strong stubern one. Always getting into something. Well he definitelly got himself into something, and this something, in Sudak's eyes, was well suited for the now full grown cub. Orion would always be a cub in Sudak's eyes as that's what he was compared to the ivory beta.

Sudak would not reveal himself to the trio that lay before him. He gave a stern look towards Novex, even though the cub could not see him within the brush. Sudak would leave the matter between father and son as it was meant to be. The overwhelming excitement of seeing Orion once again was extraordinary, but Sudak withheld himself, for another time. They would meet, when the time was right. Sudak blinked in approval of Orion's choice, now he awaited that approval of much higher authority, that of the Dragga, the father

[Bristol]

As the night drew on the small ebony trio gained another unknown visitor. The strong voice of Orion was carried to the listening ears of the now four vargs as he told them of his plan to join the Balkar.

Bristol tried to portray no emotion, but happiness at once again seeing his son gradually seeped into his eyes, but was hidden, listening to the other speak. "Conclusion..." the Dragga murmered, unaduible. He inhaled as Orion continued, knowing that he wouldn't have his son again. Bristol cocked his head very slightly at the next sentence, confused by the remark, but slowly he nodded, understanding some how he felt.

"I am glad to see you again, Orion. You have grown..." The large male wolf growled. Inhaling again Bristol looked off to the distant mountains. The wind blew softly on his broad cranuim, bringing with it the scents of prey, winter and faintly, hardly there, the scent of the village not far beyond the mountain. Closing his eyes he let his mind drift while it was silent, but caught himself. His oculars once again opened and his mind came back to realize he was nodding absently.

Returning his attention to Orion he smiled. Bristol nodded once again, yet with conciousness behind it and with slight approval. "I wish you luck on on joining the Balkar. But as you depart know this, you haven't shamed me or Fiory." His voice was calm and proud, but behind it there faintly lay sorrow, but masked, hopefully.

[Orion]

Azure eyes with specks of gold from Fiory sparkled brightly, with courage and bravery in their depths. But a sadness had grown, upon seeing his father and his childhood friends again. His father's words were encouraging, but his heart couldn't believe it. Orion's ears flicked backward, the shame washing over him once again and exposing that one trait that seperated Orion from his father Bristol. Twin stripes of gold, running along the back of his ears, similar to Fiory's, though it was only a stripe, not the whole auditory. The golden yellow was bright against his ebony black pelt, but Orion didn't care for the moment. They were simple markings, reminding him of his past, and nothing more.

"Father..." Orion would have said more, but his tounge ran dry and words were hard to come by in a situation like this. Instead, the ebony male gulped and like a young cub, threw his head and strong shoulder into Bristol's thick black coat, much like he would have done in his younger days. Holding back tears, and without looking back at Sudak or at Novex, Orion muttered miserably for only Bristol to hear.

"I know I can be better then what I have become Father...And I will show you this...I promise.." With that, Orion recoiled from his father's neck, his eyes glistening brilliantly with the brim of them tears held back well. The Balkar would harden this wild soul, this kind soul, this soft and loving, this caring and gentle soul....The balkar would ruin Orion as he was, though for the time, Orion did not seem to want to stay the way he was. Power, Strength, that was what he needed....or what he thought he needed...

(grr. sorry, writer's block)

[Gryffin]

Gryffin stirred in the dens as she lifted her eyes and her eye lids fluttered open. "huh?" she mumbled and looked about but the den was empty. "Sudak?" she wondered out loud with a yawn before getting up onto her feet and padding out of the den. Curious of the packs going ons and where her mate had suddenly disappeared to. And so gryffin trekked, following Sudak's trail.


From atop the ridges of List watched a tri hued femme. Her paws gripped the earth as her emerald orbs watched the young Orion. Admiring him from afar. How he had grown into such a fine varg. Gryffin sighed. She had watched from above and caught their conversation. Gryffin would greet her cousin but not yet, not until he had finished his talk with Bristol. there she saw her mate and Novex as well.

But Gryffin laid her attention onto Orion. She remembered how she, Sudak Orion, Denisha and...Shatila had all curled up in the small List dens to sleep away the winter and play out i the snow. Now the dens seemed larger with the absence of the young cubs. Gryffin almost whined in sadness but she knew not to cry when there was much joy. Orion was finally finding out his path of fate, future.

So the young pup...no the grown dragga was going to join the ranks of the balkar. Gryffin smiled. Somehow she felt proud of the youngster. The balkar would be hard and the training inevitable but it was up to the varg to make his choice and what was right in his heart to choose.

Gryffin began to descend the ridge tops and padded toward Sudak nuzzling him and giving him a reassuring look that she would be fine out here. She needed to see Orion. She then smiled and nodded to Novex before giving a curt bow to Bristol.

Finally she turned to Orion. "why hullo there little warrior" Gryffin smiled. Though it was strange to say when the ebon he wolf was a bit larger then the emissary herself. "I hear the news. the balkar is tough and sometimes cruel but you'll pull through." she said and nuzzled him warmly. She had missed the male's presence in the List. "You'll make us proud Orion" Gryffin said, "but you must visit, if not you then I will gladly come." she spoke and looked to Bristol. Gryffin chuckled and licked Orion's muzzle, "Then I will have been forewarned." Gryffin said and bowed in front of Orion, her large stomach brushing the floor, "Oh great First of the Future."