Under the Dead Pine, the Crippled Rest

[Alkiera]

Growling, she shifts her resting weight onto her right sides as the left side of her body goes numb; not from the cold, however. Beneath a dead, or dying, pine tree rested a young she-Varg. She was nestled in the dead needles, acting as a cushion to her body, blocking the stone-cold ground from chilling her, though a small flurry of snow could be detected against the gray of midday. The sun was just a blurr of light behind the thickened snow clouds.

She was unwelcomed, at least, by the Beta of this pack. The Drappa was kind enough to let her stay within these boundries for the time being, until this young she-Varg's condition bettered. The young Varg she encountered seemed to take a liking towards her for some strange reason which baffled this awkward female. As for everyone else, she caught not a glimpse of them. They either knew and wanted no part, or did not know.

She was a deep black with strange, piercing orange optics. Her markings, however, were more strange then her eye colour. They were a bloody maroon colour, three of her paws drenched in the colour, and her entire right-back leg was the wretched colour. She might have been granted permission to feed upon the packs kill alongside them, but she decided to remain here. It was actually a suprising place, full of vermin within its decaying bark. Small mice thrived within the wood, and it looked as though they even created their own colony within the tree. They occassionally surfaced, and if she stayed still long enough, caught herself a meal.

It wasn't enough to keep her stomach satisfied, but it was enough to keep her alive. She licked snow for water, and as soon as she bettered, Alkiera would be overjoyed to leave this damned pack. However, she had thought of bringing some of the creatures inland, towards the main pack area, for the cubs or the mother, even to a starving Listern Varg. But when she rose with the dead mouse in her jowls, her back legs clamped up and her spine screamed in terror as she made an attempt to work. Instead she stayed.

Many of the open wounds were healed, and the scar on her head was not oozing the vile pus of infection. It now healthily scabbed, but the only problem was her spinal injury from the impact of her head injury. Would it heal? Could it be healed? She hoped so, or hoped that the states of paralyze would occur less frequently, and so she could move.

Growling, she rests her head between twin marron-soaked paws as she gazes lazilly at the sky with an agitated gleam in her eye. Closing them, she gets a feeling back in her left side and begins to twitch her leg to regain all the feeling.

[Drathlic]

For a few suns, the young adult of List had been quite illusive. He had not made many appearances when the pack gathered together and therefore seemed to be loosing most contact with the vargs of a pack he had grown to love so much. Not only had he been wandering, using his time now to think, but Novex too had seemed to vanish. The mottled grey varg had not been seen in what seemed like an age, and Drathlic was beginning to worry about his friend's absense.

Taking apon a gentle, yet lazy lope, the ruddy male made his way through the pine forest of List, finding the bitter winter far too savage for his liking up in the mountainous regions. The soft, dead pines which rested beneath the tall timbers brought an amusing bounce to his step and a subtle warmth compared to the icy snow which covered the forest, masking it in a beautiful virgin white.
Drathlic loved the snow, it had caused great amusement to him for this was his first winter - and now as his body matured to that of a young adult, his thick double layered pelt kept all the cold out and all his precious heat in. He found it most amusing to watch throughout a snow storm that no snow that fell on his back, ever melted. Something so simple, yet greatly entertaining for the young male.

His thick pelt held no gleaming shine as Fenris could not manage to break through the thick snow clouds. Instead, the normally grey, red and off-white that made up his pelt was masked with little white snowflakes. Drathlic took little notice to these as his cyan blue hues glanced back and forth at the white landscape. Silence. The only sounds that penetrated his broad, erect ears was the muffled crunch of snow compacting beneath his large paws. His tail, which before he had seen as useless and pitiful, was now thick and brushy, held erect as he travelled. It was something he now lavished, and would often take much time in grooming it - partially having fun chasing it to first catch it before even laying his tongue on it.

But through his pacing of the List territory, Drathlic's azure gaze caught an unfamiliar black shape ahead, residing under a great dying pine. The only vargs that he knew to resemble such pelt colourations were his great Dragga and Drappa, though Novex could have looked black from the distance he was at and through a flurry of falling snow flakes.
Lowering his head so that it was now inline with his shoulders, his tassel began to wag furiously as the youth bounded across the snow drifts and lept under the tree, only to give out a sharp yelp in fright as he saw the faemme he didn't recognise. Backing away at first, he tucked his tail between his legs and lowered his ears. But as realisation came to him, his tail began to grow erect along with his hackles. His off white lips pulled back into the beginnings of a snarl as he growled deeply to the faemme. "Who are you and why are you within the boundaries of List?" he barked through clenched teeth. He knew that List's numbers had swelled after himself bringing two kerls into the pack and after Gryffin's litter, and from this knowledge Drathlic was aware that the pack were taking in no more members. But in his absense had they chosen to alter their decission?

[Alkiera]

"So your Drappa did not tell the rest of the pack?" growled Alkiera in a low voice, lifting her head to look into the eyes of this he-Varg who addressed her in such a negative way. Her orange optics gave off no sense of emotion as she looked at him as her tail twitches in annoyance. "I am Alkiera, a lone rogue Kerl who has taken shelter in this lovely pack of List," she says, her voice bitter with sarcasm, "And your Drappa let me stay within the pack boundries until I healed."

She rests her head between her paws once again, careful not to move so a spasm of pain would not shoot down her spine, "I hope to Zostar that I heal, for once I am gone, I will be so damn happy." she snaps, closing her eyes to take a teek draft of air. "If you have any, any concerns with me upon your terratory, go ahead an compain to the Drappa. I suppose your Beta already has, but she took no heed."

[Drathlic]

The tone of voice that this varg used sent a deep growl rumbling through Drathlic's muzzle as he observed her, pulling back his lips as she looked through his eyes with those fiery ones of her own. She was no pack member, and therefore was disrespecting him by this act. Though as she laid her head apon her paws and looked away from him, he help back his words to save her doing it on purpous - for he knew faemme could be difficult at will, just to irritate. They were funny things...and Drathlic never trully understood them.
Shaking this thought from his head - knowing he did not want to bring the questions back on himself that he'd been trying to answer for the past several suns - he growled deeply and stood in a more relaxed state, his tail lowered if only slightly and his auds perking forward as his lips relaxed from the snarl he'd just thrown. She was of no threat, it was clear that the only reason she was residing here was because of her grave injuries. He could see those of externally, but internal wounds he was not able to see as easily.

Giving out a gruff grunt he shrugged his shoulders and shook his multi-hued pelt to rid himself of the piling snow which had formed along his body, much of it spattering the strangely marked faemme. Sitting down at the edge of the circle of dead pine needles, his back facing out towards the white snowscape, Drathlic growled deeply, licking his chops whilst observing her closely. He had had no other contact for a long time, and whether she was snappy or not, he would attempt to spark a conversation with her. "So what happened?" he asked mildly, showing little emotion himself with the speech.

[Renn]

"Drathlic?" The soft voice that broke the pause in the conversation that was taking place was questioning. Golden muzzle held proudly, a young she-Varg, golden as her snout, slowly padded out of the vegetation. It had been some time since Renn had so much as layed eyes on the ruddy youth, and they had both changed slightly, as adolescents do. Drathlic's wormy tassel had grown into a beautiful banner, showing off the red and gray of his pelt and he had grown taller, his legs long with large paws on the end. Snow-spattered, Renn could see that his cyan orbs had remained the same, piercing as the ice that now covered the pond that Renn had been visiting. Renn too, had changed, growing taller, her pretty tassel now a golden banner, swishing slowly from side to side and her eyes still their peculiar emerald colour as she watched Drathlic.

Looking to the crippled faemme, Renn felt pity inside her, and a liking for the ebony Varg, loving the sharp remarks that were often expelled by the stranger, mostly aimed at their Beta, Sudak. Renn had had an arguement with the ivory Mann, resulting in Sudak threatening her with driving her away from the Pack; the cause of such a dispute: Renn showing sympathy to the alien Varg that was before her. "Uh...Hey," The golden shades faemme cautiously greeted Drathlic. Their last conversation had been awkward as the two discussed a few things, and already Renn felt the need to confide in Drathlic about the War that was pressuring her. It was something she could never share with Kop. Kop, the handsome bold Varg who had stolen Renn's heart without her even realising. Also Kop, the son of Draeg and Cwen, Alphas of Ge-Rad, the enemy. Renn did not know the cause of the War, but knew that Deor had requested Aid from Ge-Rad and Koran to attack the Balkar, who had instantly called Sarnes to their own Aid. And List had been caught between the two, until the balance of their neutral behaviour was severely tipped by Ziev, the Second of the Balkar, threatening to tewar the throats of every Listern Varg if List did not join the War. "I didn't catch your name, faemme," Renn growled, distracting herself from her worries of Warfare.

[Drathlic]

The emerging shape of a more familar varg caught Drathlic's attention immediatly, more so the fact that she had called his name than anything else. The ruddy youth looked up to see the snow dappled faemme approaching, her golden pelt now far fuller and healthier than it had been only suns before when he'd last seen her. Then again, it had been dark and they were talking on a far more embaressing subject for him to have really paid attention to her appearance.
Getting to his paws and perking his tail slightly, allowing it to sway gently as he smiled kindly to Renn, Drathlic nodded and let out a little yip of greeting. "Hey Renn. Are you ok?" he asked, a general question he had intended to ask...but she did seem slightly, put off and not her normal self.

[Alkiera]

The strange female was about to speak, answering the young Varg's question with a snappy attitude, but another Varg approached the two. She remembered this one as the Varg whom had taken a liken to her, and it still puzzled the female even now. Eyes wandering down to the snow as the two corresponded with her, she closed her eyes in almost a distant manner before another question was directed towards her?

"My name?" growls the female, "Why on earth would one want to know such of my name when I have no intent on staying here." Wrapping her tail around her thin frame, it gave a shudder and went limp. She curses underbreath before continuing. "My name is Alkiera if one must know. Why must a name be given everytime one meets another? Is it just a mere common curtesy, or is it on the fact of being so simple-minded they start a conversation with such a thing..." growling, the feel of a numbed tail peeved her, and her leg kicked out lamely from underneath her. It appeared rather uncomfortable, but alas, that leg too had gone numb.

"My life is an idiotic purpose," snarls she, answering the he-Varg's earlier question, "And so I am an idiot as well. I rammed my head against a tree while in a pointless fight against a mann. It cracked my skull and damaged my spine. The other fleshwounds were from my many falls from multiple crampings of my muscles, and my limbs grow numb at least five times a day, perhaps ten if I'm on an off day." She looks up at both, "You were probably expecting something spectacular, for knowing you pack Vargs you barely meet any Kerls, and suspect their life to be fabulous. Well, by Zostar's flame, mine sucks..."

It was hard to believe that this Varg was only one or two years older then them, for she acted like a cranky old bitch with nothing better to do then snap and be bitter. She was about three years, perhaps moving onto her fourth year. But being a Kerl, age ment nothing, only survival. Growling, she adds, "Now, if you two are to chatter like a couple of pestering cubs, be off. I have little the patience for you chatty Pack-Varg..."

[Renn]

"Hmm," Renn growled, not really answering Drathlic's question. Her mind was still a pool of confusion, her thoughts swimming around in its depths. Her priorities were currently, 1. Her feelings for Kop and Drathlic. 2. Gryffin's cubs. 3. The War. 4. Sudak's threats. 5. Memories. 6. Cwen's nasty temperant. The sixth one was odd for Renn to bear, but valid in its own league, for with the silver Drappa's irritable moods, it was likely that she may restrict Kop from meting Renn. The snaps of the ebony Varg were as irritable as Cwen's, but more fire than ice. "If you think you are unwelcome, faemme, then leave. But let it be known that I support your staying here and healing and I know that many others will." Minus Sudak Renn added silently. Sudak's use of force against this crippled Alkiera was a streak that the golden faemme had grown to resent. "As you probably guessed, I am called Renn."

[Alkiera]

She lets out a habit of a growl as Renn spoke, "Why are you so keen onto me, little Renn?" She moves her body as she feels her legs regain their senses back as she lets out a long, intended stretch. Continuing, she sits like a sphinx, finally comfortable with how she sat.

"You neither resented me nor forced me to leave when I came upon your lands without Tratto's Blessing, and even spoke up against the Beta. Is it just common for you to try to make friends, a lonely litttle Pack Varg, or you just pitied me out of the goodness of your heart. If you pity me, haven't you realised? Not all Vargs wish to have pity thrown upon them, nor are they searching for it. Pity is for lost cubs, and even they do not deserve such a thing," her eyes flickered in an agitated state, "Annoying little cubs they are, wanting nothing but kindness thrown upon them. The world is cruel, and they should learn to live the way I lived for my whole life..." Even though this was a topic she brought up, the subect made her twitch in anger at the thought of the whining of a lost cub.

She had met one once, and snarled at it with bitterness until that hybrid healer of that damned Ge-Rad pack came and yelled at her, and the cub eater...Nocturnia or something along the lines of that, said a cub needed warmth sometimes. Wasn't he a cub eater? Hypocrite was all she could think. She was utterly disliked out of her hotheaded anger and frustration she placed upon everyone, and her single-minded foolishness.

Unknowingly, she had met someone related to this newcoming he-Varg, his sister. She had snapped at her too for some odd reason, perhaps it was only nature for her to be this rude, and her mate had threatened her to a fight, and so, being called a coward, she accepted. With both parents dead, however, when she was a cub at an early age, she never learned how to truly fight and rammed her head into the tree, thus ending up in the condition she was in.

"Why do you not resent me?" she growls, repeating the question.

[Renn]

Renn nodded as Alkiera listed the things she had done to show kindness to the stranger. "It is true, I neither resent you, nor wish to drive you away. In your condition, you would be dead within a few more days if we do not help you, Alkiera, so I suggest you allow us to catch you prey," Renn growled, emerald optics sparkling as she looked upo the crippled Alkiera. "I have never really liked Sudak, for his treatment of another intruder was cruel, snapping at the adolescent when he did not know the full extent of that stranger. And the way he nearly forced you out was brutal and wrong, stupid for a Beta to drive away a wolf in need." All that tumbled from her golden throat was true, though her voice was free of bitterness as she was insulted by the ebony faemme. Though an uneasy peace had been made between Renn and Sudak, his threat of driving her away from the Pack still cut through her heart when she remembered them, and they haunted her dreams more than any other figments of her shattered memory that haunted her too.

Turning away from Alkiera, Renn growled, "Where have you been recently Drathlic? Wherever it was has done you good," The ruddy Varg's body was not as skinny as the rest of the Pack, and was miles apart from Fiory. Renn's eyes clouded for a few moments as she thought of her Drappa's recent appearance, how Fiory had slowly become thinner and thinner, a mere skeleton covered with a pelt. Though the golden faemme had no real experience of such matters, Renn knew that in such a condition, Fiory was prone to sickness far more than the rest of the Pack. Auds pricked up as Alkiera voiced her question again, the golden faemme merely smiled. "I like the fire that burns inside you," Emerald orbs were glittering with mischief as she added, "Oh, and I enjoy how you disrespect Sudak."

[Alkiera]

"A rebel, eh?" murmurs the she-Varg as her eyes dart lazilly towards the hole in the dying pine. A small, whiskered nose finds its way up, and then a small mouse appears from the hole, cleaning itself.

Must be an idiot, Alkiera thinks, watching it with her body tensing. Suddenly, with such a suprising quickness, she smacks her maroon paw upon the mouse with such a distasteful CRUNCH, even a Varg would shudder. Not she, this was how she caught those damned creatures. Lifting her paw, she sees a faint trickle of blood oozing from the vermin's cracked neck, which now lay useless and limp with its spine sticking out. Licking her paw as the blood soaked her fur, she says, "Give that to your Alphess, she seemed rather sickly and thin, worse then the whole lot of you. I can't stand weak-looking Vargs."

[Sora]

Her blood coursed strongly through her young veins as she charged through the snow, her pounding pulse beating away the cold from her thin coat. The snow surrounding her opened until it reached the dark confines of the conifers, and above the skies opened until they were lost in the horizon. They were a light blue in the fading day, smudged with thin gray clouds that seemed to mix and blend with the heavens. Winter had stopped to rest before it began harsher than it had been, but the many deep feet of frozen snow was the reminder that death was here. But with death and despair came life and hope, and so she ran, the feeling of exuberance growing inside her as she crouched low across the ground to go faster and faster.

Sora had taken liberty of the day and the bare sky to run in the only home and life she knew while she grew stronger and taller, her long, lanky limbs becoming more and more like windmills everyday. Her fast fading blue eyes were lit with a wild fire of enjoyable mischief inside of her white face, and she unwittingly came closer and closer to her pack mates and the invalid wolf she had been warned against.

Panting heavily after her ageless run, she slunk to the ground, eyes bright and tongue hanging as her thin white chest heaved. Voices came through a thick group of bracken in front of her, and she recognized Renn and Drathlic. She knew them a bit, and she liked them well enough, but the golden femur Renn somehow annoyed her. Sora didn’t know why, but everything about her beliefs seemed to clash with the she-cubs new formed ones, and her boldness didn’t allow her to submit unless forced. On her belly she scooted forward along the glittering crust of snow even though she could hear them clearly; she came to a halt in the first shadows of the rugged bushes and tried to come her breathing so she could understand everything.

With a spark of excitement she realized that Alkiera the Kerl who was taking advantage of their small bit of prey with Fiory’s wishes was there with them, and she scooted forward once more on her strained and tired legs. Sora wasn’t afraid, but she was egged on by the fact that the black mingled wolf was dangerous. The dusty brown cub had never been in real danger, and she didn’t know fear yet. So she eagerly listened to all that was going on.

A sudden fury, greater than she had ever known, erupted; how dare Renn say anything about her father! How dare she insult him to the outsider, and how dare she felt no shame. Without realizing what she was doing, without caring, she broke through the scratchy branches and came face to face with Renn, her breath still rugged but now from anger. She didn’t even glance at Drathlic or the Kerl, her flashing eyes were on the golden femme.

“You think it’s stupid that my father loves these lands, that he would protect him with his life?!” she snarled, her hackles raised and small white canines bared. “You may live in a world where everything is all right, but we have a large pack and up here in the mountains prey barely exists in the winter if you didn’t know. He was protecting me and my littermates and my mother and the rest of the pack, including you. We don’t have time for a Kerl, we are not a refuge, and especially not for Varg’s who feel they can barge through everyone. My father is a good wolf who would sacrifice everything for List, who has. If you can look down at him, than I can gladly rip you apart! What kind of pack mate are you? You put a Kerl in front of us all for what? You have a duty to us first, you can't save everyone, and because of you Fiory will get thinner and thinner along with the rest of us, a single mouse won't help.”

[Renn]

A familiar scent was flowing towards Renn, and the occasional crack of a stick alerted her to the prescense of another Lera. The scent was similar to Renn's good friend, Gryffin, and also Gryffin's Mate, Sudak. Given the fact that it was a small creature, Renn could only assume that it was one of the Betas' cubs, though their still wasn't enough distinction in the scent for the faemme to tell exactly which one. Though it was female, so not Arias. Instead of attempting to search out the cub, Renn pinpointed it with her senses and focused on it, aware of any threat that may come close to the cub. Auds pricked forward at Alkiera's suggestion, Renn allowed herself a short laugh, more of a chuckle really, at the word rebel. "Not so much a rebel, Alkiera," Renn growled, humour in her voice, "More of someone with a point of view about everything." What Alkiera said was partly true, though, for Renn had many mixed opinions about the ivory Beta. For instance, if Renn came across Sudak in a fight with another Varg, the golden faemme would fight alongside him, even risk her own life to save him. But if Renn caught Sudak attempting to remove a Varg in even more need of help than Alkiera, the golden faemme would verbally oppose his decision to turn out a crippled Varg. Te reason for wishing to help injured ones was a hereditary thing, for many of the faemmes on her Mother's side had had soft hearts, though little did Renn know it.

Finally, the cub revealed itself at her comments, crashing forward in the undergrowth. Renn looked round startled, as Sora sprang out infront of the golden faemme, snarling and growling as if a lynx was after her. Before Renn could voice her question, is there a threat, Sore was throwing insults at Renn as if her very life depended on it. It was absurd, a small cub, hackles bristling, snarling at an adolescent who could knock her aside with one swipe, but Renn merely stared down at the cub, emerald orbs burning into Sora's. Deep down inside her, the golden faemme realised that Sora would see it from the point of view and that she was too well hidden to have seen the humour in Renn's eyes as she commented on Alkiera's disrespcet for the cub's Father, to realise that Renn had been joking, using it merely to lighten the mood between herself and the ebony stranger. Opening her maw, the golden faemme quickly shut it as Sora swept aside Renn's attempt at speaking and continued on to say that Renn was contributing to Fiory starving to death. Rage glinted in her orbs as the cub suggested such a thing and her own hackles bristled slightly. "Calm yourself, Sora! You assume so much when you see so little, for I was joking about your Father. Perhaps if you had chosen to reveal yourself, you would have seen the humour in my orbs and realised that," Hostility filled Renn's voice as she added, "And as for a mouse not helping, every little counts. Maybe when you are old enough to understand that you will think better of your words. You are mistaken that I am contributing to Fiory's starvation, for a joke does not keep food from hungry bellies."

[Alkiera]

"A small hole could empty the largest bucket of all its water," growls the she-Varg towards the newcomer, looking at her daringly with large, orange orbs as she places her paw gingerly over the mouse she had crushed in an almost protective way. "My mother used to tell that to me sometimes. A bucket is a man-made thing used to hold great amounts of water for necessary needs such as drinking, and it is quite obvious what a whole is. What that translates into is that even the smaller things have a greater impact." Her great dislike of cubs shown bitterly in her eyes as she lets out a rather faint snarl as she pulls the dead creature closer to her as a mother would do with her cub.

"If you want you Alphess to die the pittiful an unmerciless death of hunger, then continue to talk as such. Perhaps this mouse would gladly rot to supply something of food." She lets out an exaggerated sigh, "Of course, this naive being is merely a pup and cannot tell the difference between what is important and what is not. You pose as no threat, no matter how hard you try, and are sort of...comical. Though you may pose as such later on in your life, the present is now and you pose as nay." She rises, limping over to the young cub she towers over her, though this cub was quite tall Alkiera's stong and long legs gave her a greater high as she looks down, her paw trailing blood from the mouse who was left under the tree.

"You think it's stupid that he would let a poor defensless cripple out in the wilderness only to die the next day of injury from the mind, spirit, and body? You know nothing of suffering, no matter how hard you try. How would I pose as a threat? I am crippled and, like you, lack food within my stomach. I take not of your food, eat only one morsel of mouse when it's possible, drink from the snow because of me being unable to move properly. See how I limp? Its worse when I'm off. You may be a part of these lands, but Fiory's the Alphess, all complaints of her decision of me staying upon her lands can be taken driectly to her. I've had enough of the whining of the pure stupidity of a spoiled brat like you!" Alkiera ends this with a snarl and she places her face within a hair-lengths from the cub, her rank breath warming her face as she opens her jowls to bite. But she turns, limping back towards the indent of snow where she had rested, placing her paw upon the mouse once again.

"Renn, I refuse to give you this kill until this young cub stops her whining story of her hero father and lets us all be. Little Sora, would you really want your Alphess's hunger to increase only because of your pitiful little rant? If she dies because she has gotten no food today, we all will know who to blame."

[Sora]

“You lie!” she cried furiously, shaking with anger, holding herself back. “You filthy femme, you were serious when you said he was brutal and stupid, well you’re the stupid one! You take it back or I will make you!” Hate pounded in Sora’s ears, and a desire to bite at the golden she-wolf made her bare her fangs. She was beyond submitting and fear, she would show Renn how serious she was. “Ha!” she screamed at Renn, “HA! Every bit would count if she got every bit of it, but no, she won’t because you take care of this Varg! I don’t even care though, you just shut up about my father, never say anything about him again or I’ll make you sorry. I will! My mother goes on about how you’re our protector; well she wouldn’t if she knew!” Sora wouldn’t tell her mother about Renn, but a lifelong enmity had sprung up between the two, even if they were of the same pack.

She rounded on the Kerl, a savage snarl ringing from her mouth. “These lands belong to me as much as they do to her! They belong to the rest of us too! We hunt here and we live here and we will die here, this is our territory, it is not just hers. She may lead it, but we have our right to it too.” Sora expected Renn to let the insults be hurled at her, and she didn't want her help, they were both her enemies now.

Her father was brought up again, and a wild fire woke inside her. Her small muzzle opened wide as she let out an enraged bellow and pelted forward to bury her teeth into Alkiera.


//Ahh! *dies* Yeah, it's choppy and stinky, sorry.//