Secrets Must Be Kept Silent; Returning

[Renn]

The golden streak moved with deadly speed as it twisted and turned through the lands of Transylvania. A familiar scent echoed like a sound through her delicate nostrils as she continued to run, nimbly avoiding the rocks that jutted out of the mountain terrain. This faemme moved with the grace as a Listern Varg in its own terra, and it was true, for it was Renn who made her way through her home Packlands, enjoying every breath she gulped of the Pack scent. Emerald lamplights flashing with passion, Renn continued to move on graceful pillars, springing from rock to rock, never damaging the pads on her digits as she ran. A deep haunting sadness echoed in her sullen orbs, burning with the passion that had once fuelled a love so strong that it had shattered her heart when it 'ended'.

The object of her desires had been nothing less than the son of the Dragga of Ge-Rad, Kop. Even now, Renn could still picture Kop's handsome features, his friendly ways, his warm pelt, his loving heart. But though the very image was permanently branded in her memory, it would be a long time before the golden youth gazed upon the grizzled face of the Mann she loved. It had all begun about a moon ago, when Kop had taken the liberty to intrude on Listern lands, daringly frolicking in the snow when he was spotted. The spotter was Renn, and she had greeted the dragga with hostility and open aggresion, prepared to fight this Varg to drive him away. Surprisingly, Kop had mirrored her actions and snarled in her face, before the Pack Betas chose the time to make an appearance. But even though the pair had been prepared to scrap, their hormones conrtolled their actions, and soon they were showing off to each other, for example when Kop stood taller and showed of his many muscles before Renn and the Beta Mann, Sudak. The second meeting had been the mirror image of the first, except the positions had been reversed, with Renn unknowingly intruding upon Ge-Rad terra and getting caught out by Kop. Since then, their relationship had blossomed and their many meetings kept their bond strong, transforming it into something that Renn called love. Unfortunately, their luck ran out when Kop agreed to meet Renn in the heart of the forest, a dark secluded spot where all intentions were masked. A human camp had been nearby, and Man had taken the decision to hunt. Before the pair were aware of anything, Renn declared her love to Kop, and was struck by an arrow in her hind leg. Twice more, was the faemme struck, yet she still ran away, ahead of Kop in the chase. It was an arrow that ended the chase, as it cut finely through Kop's pelt and wedged itself in his muscle, slowing the dragga down till he could neither move nor scream.

Man captured Kop that day, and it was Renn's burden to take the heart-breaking news to his family. Forgetting to call for blessing, Renn had staggered across the border and explained all to the amber Dragga, Draeg, Kop's Father. After ordering the Pack Healer/Beta, Lydair, to treat the Listern youth, Draeg left in search of his son without so much as a goodbye to Cwen. During her stay, Renn was forced to take all evil comments that reached her auds, especially from Cwen, and she briefly met and talked to the Hybrid Lydair's daughter, Caoimhe, a pup who stirred Renn had scared her in a strange paranormal way.

Thoroughly healed, Renn had left and travelled to the Mountains, deliberately avoiding her home terra soi that she could be alone. Once in the Mountains, Renn had happened to bump into the young Varg, Lucy Fiar, and was persuaded out of her stupor to return back to List, and to give the news to Gryffin, a good friend of Draeg. Before she could make it back, the golden faemme took the liberty of drinking from the River, where she met the Kerl, Thunder, and the same bitch wo had tended to her, Lydair, also the one with sharp-as-knives comments. Now Renn had made it back to her home terra, the terra of List, a great Pack.

Finally, Renn stopped and raised her maw to the midnight sky above her. The melody was long and mournful, one full of such sadness and strife, that it was impossible to tell that it was Renn calling to her Packmates for comfort and company.

[Alkiera]

She wanted to leave...and by Zostar she shall. The she-varg had aimlessly limped across the List terrain, searching for Fiory or the Alpha Male whom she had never set eyes upon, and tell them of her leaving. For about a day or so she did, until she came to her senses and scorned herself. Hell, why should I say I'm leaving? I'll be happy to go by myself, the ebony wolf snarled to herself. She now did not worry about her laspses of muscle cramps, and her falling to the earth, kicking uselessly with her only good leg, if there were any during that time. Now, she merely walked with an incurable limp, barely noticable.

And she walked with an itch to leave...and did not care if anyone knew of this or not. They wouldn't look for her, she wasn't a part of this pack, this family. She wrinkles her brow at that thought, born a rogue she would stay a rogue, being the Drappa of her own instead of cowering down to the heirarchy such as these pack Vargs did.

"Some pack," she growls as she takes a side-step to avoid a small, but noticable rock that found itself wedged into the ground, "So small...and fragile. Sickly and..." sniffing agitatedly at the ground, "frail. Not enough food for them, and thus I leave my ungrateful prescence and keep it to myself, no one else. Dammit, where does the scent of List end?" Orange eyes bruns angrilly at the sky, darkened with night, Tor shining greatly down upon the land. "Enjoying yourself, huh, you bitch of a God while we simple-minded Vargs meander about the ground until the day we perish? I would enjoy myself too, if I hung lazilly up there, nothing more than a story...My mother and father were so fond of you, Fenris, and Zostar...me personally, enjoyed the greatness of Zostar. But then that hybrid," she growled, remembering the varg who refused to tell her the name. All she knew was of the pack, Ge-Rad, and that she was much beloved there as a Healer. "...Scorned him and called him Wolfbane because she thought fire brings death..." continuing on, her voice drops to a low murmur, and felt like a fool for talking to the moon, "But it doesn't...it yearns to be free, like us...and nothing should get in its way to freedom...we would kill for freedom, and that is exactly what fire does. It's similiar to us, for though we are free and wild, we can be tamed as a man-pet...but still long to be free. That's why men is sometimes consumed by flames."

Orange eyes twinkle mischeviously as she limps, sniffing the terrain every now-and-then, hoping to find the end of Listern scent. Something caught her ears, a mournful howl, and a bitter tang of a scent came to her nose, so new that she had to draw her head back and clear her head. "Perhaps, this is the end..." she growls, limping towards the scent. Her heart drops, however, when she sees the only Varg who seemed to have accepted her fully, Renn. Muddled in her fur were strange foreign scents, and two known ones. One was, of course, the same foul scent all List Vargs carried around them and another seemed like a dreadful memory coming back to haunt her. Though she was reluctant, she aproached Renn. Perhaps she would know the end of the terratory...and then I can finally be free from these damned chains.

((Bad...>.< Don't forget, Alkiera's still here...))

[Renn]

"Alkiera!" Renn growled, startled at the sudden appearance of the once-crippled faemme. Since those few meetings, many suns back, when the ebony stranger before her had injured herself in some way and been forced to stay on Listern land, Alkiera had healed well, though limp still slowed her down and would most sertainly effect her chances, even if it were just the slightest way. It occured to Renn that the two faemmes were in many ways, similar, for each had experienced the cruelty of being confined in alien terra due to bodily weaknesses afflicted upon them for some reason or other. Now as Renn briefly glanced into Alkiera's savage yellow orbs, she felt a slight familiarity with the Kerl.

Renn had been within an enemy Pack, the opposite side in a War between List's allies, the Balkar, and Sarnes, against Deor and Ge-Rad, the Pack she had been confined to. Of course, both faemmes would have gone through hostility, but Alkiera had been welcomed into Listern terra by the Drappa, Fiory, and during the times they had met, Renn had tried to show kindness to the fiery-tempered cripple. As for Renn, it was only the word of an absent Dragga that secured her safety in Ge-Rad terra. But the fact was that both had been held within alien terra for reasons that they were crippled, and both had experienced the humility of relying on others for food, though still striving to hunt for themselves. Renn had optionally starved herself, accepting only the meager offerings rather than test Cwen's patience by hunting - The broken-hearted Drappa had reacted to the death of her son, Krael, the capture of her son, Kop, an the sudden absence of her Mate, Draeg, who had gone in search of his son, with open aggresion and hostility to many, though in particular Renn, who she referred to as 'the Listern runt'.

"Time has healed many of your afflictions, I can see," Renn spoke politely to Alkiera, though kept her voice kind. "I trust it does not hurt?" As she continued to address the faemme, the golden yoputh's tail began to swish slowly from side to side a few times. It was the first time since Kop's capture that her banner had even considered such a movement, and it was true, that being home had done this for her, and speaking with people she liked spending time with. "How does List hunt? Have you spoken to Drathlic since I left? Is Sora still bad-tempered?" A sly grin flickered across her maw as the she-wolf spoke of Sora, daughter of Renn's good friends, the Betas, Gryffin and Sudak. The little cub had taken viciously against Renn when she caught the adolescent being sarcastic about the ivory Beta, Sudak, who had threatened to drive Renn away after the golden wolf spoke up against him pushing Alkiera away instead of letting her stay.

[Alkiera]

"And I see time has done some damage upon you..." the she-Varg said, her muzzle wrinkling to show utter disgust, as well as her healthy white fangs, towards the scent that lingered upon the Varg. "You reek of blood and sorrow...and a pack." Her orange eyes widen suddenly at the realization. "Ge-Rad..." she murmurs to herself, only audable to herself. "The...hybrid Varg. I remember now, fully. Deserting me, smiting my God..." shaking her cranuim, she looks up towards Renn, her eyes returning to the same fire that they always had possessed.

"Nay, it hurts not...though I do limp." she says in the usual growl of her vocals. "I did not speak with Drathlic since, and Sora is still the little bitch that she is." It haunted her at how well she knew some of the pack members as she does. She returns to the question of 'hunting well.'

"Though most is unknown to me, I seem to recall an announcement of a Herla upon the terrain, though of course I took no part of it." She lifts her head up as she looks down upon Renn. This would be the only Varg she'd consider her friend, but even then it was unlikely she would call anyone with such a title. "And thus, little Renn, I shall be departing myself of these lands. Surely then everyone would be happy...for even you carry around the familiar scent of mourning..." shaking her head, she lifts her paws and steps aside. "And still I shall leave."

[Renn]

"Yes - time has passed since I last saw you, and my body has since become afflicted. But I am healed, thanks to that Hybrid of Ge-Rad," Little did she know that each word of Ge-Rad was simply leading Alkiera on to her enemy, Lydair. Dipping her muzzle slightly, Renn remembered the hostility Lydair and the rest of Ge-Rad had felt for the golden youth, and in particular, her memory rested on Lydair's unfortunate daughter, Caoimhe. That little bitch of a pup would make Sora seem like a flying scavenger. In Renn's tortured soul, Caoimhe was like the whelp placed on the earth to do Wolfbane's work, tormenting and torturing Renn's very heart until she wished she could just dive off the waterfall. "Her daughter was a bit much,"

"I hope that your limp heals properly soon, my friend," Renn boldly called Alkiera what she hoped to be true, speaking with kindness. "I am saddened that you choose to leave Listern terra so soon, but it is not my place to ask you to stay. Do you wish for guidance to the border?"

[Alkiera]

The she-Varg turns her head towards Renn, eyeing her with a strange look in her eyes. It was almost like the look of distastefulness, but of something else, too...

"Soon? Soon?" she lets out a snort as though she thought the idea of it was preposterous. "I'm no Pack Varg like your sort. I was born a Kerl, and the only Varg I answer to is myself. Many may call me a bitch, or a spawn of a Rogue, but I am...both of my parents are rogues, and I follow in their fading footsteps that now become melted in the snow. They may be lost, but there scent is leading me on...whether to a happy life or not, it still takes me and causes me to become restless...I cannot stay in one spot at once..."

She shuts her eyes placidly at the thought, and for once, the she-Varg seemed to be at peace. However, she opens her eyes as though the thought of realization came upon her. Pupils reside into Renn's own orbs, and she looks at her keenly. "You talk of Ge-Rad and of a Healer Hybrid. I believe...I believe I became aquainted with her once, but never caught her name..." she looks thoughtful, "Might you have, for I am beginning to suspect she has no name whatsoever..."

((...Bah, 'tis horrible!))

[Gryffin]

"Leaving so soon?" A milky voice whispered as a shadow snaked out from the wintry bracken of the Listern terra. It was Gryffin, the moonlights glow reflecting the femme's pelt to shimmer with a blue tinge. Her pink tongue hung out as she too a deep breath, cold sharp air pinching her lungs as she exhaled, leaving her misty breath to hang in the still air.

Gryffin padded over toward Alkiera and nodded to her, though the beta held her posture, her tail clearly high and upholstered like a country's flag, as her crimson ears twitched. "List will seem all that quieter though, once the ebon raven has left" Gryffin said, referring to Alkiera. The tri hued femme was strange. At times she would act as kind and gentle as a mother to her pups, when other times she would act as cold hearted as the balkar themselves. For now Gryffin was just being coy. In fact it would be different when the black she wolf leaves.

During the first moons, whenever Gryffin had seen the black shadow, limping her way through the vegetation, hackles would have raised and Gryffin was sure that it was an intruder. But then did she realize it was only Alkiera. By now Gryffin had gotten used to the black shadow that lingered by the lone tree. To Gryffin Alkiera had almost been a distant pack member, more as the sikla of the pack since Gryffin had seen here by herself most of the time, as if shunning herself from the vargs around her.

But Gryffin attention was now focused on something else "Where have you been Renn!" Gryfin said almost sounding too old for herself. "Leaving without a word nor howl! I'd have thought you had left a day or two to find food, but when you have been gone for almost a moon Renn" Gryffin said and padded toward the golden pelted femme, her emerald orbs grasping onto Renn's shimmering optics.

Gryffin opened her maw to say something more but she snapped it shut and looked at Renn with a frown on her brow. "Where in the name of Wolfbane have you gone to?" Gryffin blinked and she padded forward, Gryffin had heard the talk between Alkiera and Renn, about Lydair and Ge rad, but never did Gryffin have the inkling thought that Renn had been i nthe Ge rad lands. Gryffin padded to her and started to scent the golden pelted femme. She had a strong scent of mountains, though it was hard to say where since the femme still held the strong scent of List, and List was a pack of the mountains. But one thing she did smell was injury and Ge rad. "Renn you scent of Ge rad, tell me where have you been this past moon?" Gryffin said, her voice was sharp and bold as she looked into Renn's eyes. Though Gryffin could not hide the worry in her emerald eyes.

[Renn]

Blinking her emerald oculars, Renn allowed the ebon faemme to rant on a bit about the timing of her leaving. It had only just dawned on the golden youth that it had been some time since she had left List, and that it was a deceptive thought that Alkiera had not been confined to Listern terra for a Moon. Glancing briefly into Alkiera's orbs, Renn held her gaze for a few moments as she spoke "It'll still be sad to see you go, Alkiera, and I shall be saddened that we did not spend more time together, for you have a fire that burns in your soul, and for that I respec toyur decision to leave," Even as she spoke, Renn's voice was soft as she relived the time when Alkiera had first insulted her, practicly spitting fire at those around her, an action that Renn found humorous to watch. "You wish for the Healer's name, Alkiera, but if she did not extend it, the I find that it is not my place to speak it either. I am sorry, but my loyalty to her secrets is for the healing she did to my own wounds,"

A familiar scent hung in the air, caught by the wind and twisted round to aim directly at the pair of faemmes, one that for some alien reason, Renn could not put her paw on. "The nearest Border is that way," The Listern faemme growled, pointing her muzzle back the way she had come. It was also the Border closest to Ge-Rad terra, and Renn's private form of helping her fiery friend along to discovering Lydair's name. The scent that surrounded Renn grew stronger, as if the source was approaching Alkiera and the golden adolescent, and it was hostile to the ebon faemme at least. A bitter milky voice called out, speaking sarcasticly to Alkiera, as if the owner, feminine by the sound of it, had good cause to dislike the Kerl. Of course, any Pack-Varg would distrust a stranger who was aloud on their terra, but that thought was inconcievable to Renn, who had accepted Alkiera without a word.

Before either of the pair had time to respond, the same voice spoke again, accompanied by the sudden appearance of the tri-coloured manifest of Gryffin, Beta Faemme to List and one of Renn's dearest friends. But even as the Listern Vargs' emerald oculars swept across each other, Renn notice them harden slightly as Gryffin carefully scented the newcomer all over. "Gryffin! It's good to see you, my friend, how are the cubs? Fiory, Sudak? Silent? Drathlic? How do you hunt?" The words tumbled from Renn's maw as he covered up the awkwardness she felt as Gryffin's orbs burnt holes in her golden-pelted bodice.

The BEta's own words were brisk as she interogated Renn. Gazing up at her friend for a few moments, Renn broke the stare and looked at the snowy ground, feeling ashamed as she thought of her confinement to Ge-Rad, and her unlikely love of Kop, the Alphas' Son. "I...I did go hunting, Gryffin, but I was careless when chasing a hare and passed too close to a human camp. Ge-Rad helped me with my injuries..." Was this how Renn was honouring her love? Covering it up from one of her dearest friends in List? Lying about Kop and what happened?

"Ignore that," Renn growled, flicking her golden head to look back to her friend. "It was a lie. The story is long, for it began more than a Moon ago. Remember when I caught a Ge-Rad Varg on our terra? That was Kop, Son of Draeg and Cwen, and though our meeting was brief, we were drawn to each other, despite ourselves. It was mere physical attraction of Vargs our age, but it grew stronger when the exact same thing happened, except the positions were reversed. The Pack was starving, and so I left briefly to look for food, and I found it, but what I did not realise was that I was in the heart of Ge-Rad terra, chasing a vast herd of Herla. The hunt failed, but I was cuahgt by Kop, and...I can't explain what happened, but you should know from your experiences with Sudak. All I can say is that it was a crush, young love really, and Kop escorted me to the Border where I came back unsuccessful," Taking a deep breath, Renn's eyes flashed briefly to Gryffin's checking for anger at the secrets Renn kept from List, and her, well, what some would call treachery. "Since then...Kop and I were constantly arranging to meet up, to exchange news, chat, or just lay together. Our love deepened, and it was because of our love that it all happened. Kop agreed to meet me in the heart of the woods, close to what we later iscovered was a human Camp. I.........I kinda, er, confessed my love to Kop when Man's arrows rained down upon us. Thrice I was struck, and Kop was captured by the humans. I bore the news back to Ge-Rad, weak from my wounds and hunger. I was confined by my own shattered mind and broken heart. The Healer treated me and at last I was allowed to leave. I went to the Mountains first, too wretched to face my own Pack. Anyway, another Varg forced me to confront my fears and my memories, so I returned. And now I am stuck here, sounding stupid and treacherous as I explain this all to you," Puasing again, Renn thought of how Draeg had left Ge-Rad to search for his Son. Well, Renn had not spilt that secret, for she had been sworn not to, but she felt that Gryffin deserved to know about Renn and Kop. "Believe me, Gryffin, for I swear by whatever you hold dearest to you that it is true. And my love for Kop shall never fade."

[Alkiera]

The she-Varg lets out a low, lamented growl at what Renn had said to the name. Ignoring that fact, she looks towards the way that the younger Varg had pointed out, and was about to make her way towards the boundary, finally getting out of these choking packlands. It wasn't that this pack was large, but by living in such close quarters to many wolves (in her opinion as a Loner) caused quite a bit of unnervance to the wolf. However, the sudden aproach of the Female Beta caused her to pause.

She talked to Alkiera, with the quote of "Leaving so soon,", and the Kerl winces at these words. Was she actually...wanted? She wrinkles her lips to expose teeth at the dreaded thought of belonging to a pack with Vargs that despised the very flesh of her.

"Pity for both of you, for it seems as though only you two are pleased with my prescence..." she pauses as she listens to Renn's story, and lets out a rather rude snort.

"Young love...when I was a cub, I felt nothing for no one. I barely met any other Varg who I felt true feelings, and thank Zostar I didn't. I see what it turns others, into fools..." she pauses as though she thought not of the feelings of the other. "And once you admit your love...something terrible always seems to happen..." she states in a thoughtful way.

((Cr-a-pp-y!))

[Gryffin]

omt! im so sorry i'll reply to this tommorow! smack me!