Across the Boundaries

[Sabla]

//Hope you don't mind me posting with you, I'm a little rusty and I've been gone awhile and don't know what I've missed. //

Sabla wandered through the forest, admiring the summer breeze and the sunlight dappled leaves on the trees branches. Summer was so beautiful, so wonderful, so addicting. The Transylannian countryside was thriving with creatures high on the summer drug, even the land seemd enthralled.

In any season, Sabla felt out of place. Her auburn fur sticking out like a sore thumb and making hunting all the more difficult. But usually she had felt balanced in nature. She would always find away around her oddity. Yet again, today she felt out of place. In fact, for many moons she had.

It had nothing to do with the color of her fur, all the way down to her black-tipped tail, or even the fact that the herla became all the more harder to hunt. Sabla felt...off with the world. ....Disconnected somehow.

So she had left, run away from all her connections to find her balance out there in seclusion. Leaving everyone behind, even her beloved Tarmalo, the varg whom she was closest. But it had been near two seasons and she still hadn't found it, didn't find her balance after all that time. So she had returned to her homeland, back to her friends and everything familar.

Yet nothing seemed familar. Not even the summer breeze. All the scents were strange, all the places seemed new. But is that to change? Can she regain what she once had, her balance, her place back in the world?

The femme shook her head, continuing to look around worridly and hoping something would seem right. Yet as she wandered, she didn't even realize she crossed over the Koran boundaries, that she had stepped back into her own home.

If only something was familar...

[Tarkah]

The summer breeze flew through Tarkah's elegant white coat. The what seemed to be ancient varg padded on gently, her golden eyes as piercing as the sun blinked as she took in the familiar sights and sounds around her. The arctic born drappa had lost much of her winter coat and now amongst the lively colourations of greens and browns she stood out like a sore eye.

She seemed almost too old to live but Koran had been kind to her. Through harsh winters the koran pack had been able to feast well and though her bones spoke with age her heart still beat strong. Perhaps it was her will itself that kept her living, the will to live and prosper, and to watch over the pack that what as part of her as her eyes, ears and tail.

She was proud of how her pack was fairing and she had no doubt that her daughter Phantom would continue leading into a great prosperous future.

The ivory drappa turned her head, the sound a youngster's cry caught her ears quick. Now there was always something about Tarkah that everyone would grow to remember. It was her overreactive mothering instincts. Through her days of prime she had brought enough litters into the world but now she would tend to the young that came to Koran hungry and motherless.

Tarkah lifted her muzzle, her nose wrinkling as she tried to scent out the pup. But her ears helped her the most as she padded toward a fuzzy brown pup.

Gentle golden eyes watched as the pup frantically skittered here and there. From the yelps Tarkah could make out the name of Alice, a young she wolf that was related to Exerci. But who was this pup?

Slowly Tarkah approached the frightened youngster, "Little pup you should know better than to be out here all alone. There are dangers far more fearsome beyond the northern borders... Have no fears, you are safe now, and in the heart of the Koran pack"

Sensing the pups fear the white wolf slowly sat down, blinking slowly as she smiled, "Tell me little one, why are you looking for Alice?"

Tarkah questioned curiously, her black ears twitching to rid the fly that had decided to make her ears a resting spot. For the young pup she had reached the packlands, and her pup status would keep her safe. The kerl lands were dangerous, and if she had gone farther to the north she would have fallen into the lands of the Balkar,List and Sarnes.

Waiting for her replies Tarkah sensed yet another movement. Her senses revved up in full alert as she stood up, hackles tickling and eyes glaring into the shadows of the woods. There she spotted a pelt that was golden, and gleaming as if aflame under the sunlight. Tarkah relaxed, tail swishing to the side.

Sabla had returned

[Alice]

//Changing my colors for this thread, since lightblue is really hard to read with the color of the board, to me at least. On a different note, my muse is back!! And I'm so sorry this is really long. I've been having a good day today and it brought out... the words. But I cut it short for you guys. //

Rain poured heavily from the gloomy, sapphire colored sky. Above, the moon hung full and dim, obscure in the night sky by the wispy clouds, its faint light whispering short stories to the creatures below. Among the whispering of the lazy moon, was the almost unnoticed pit pat, pit pat of the rain as it pounded the ground and the water's murky depths. Crickets, chirping in harmony with one another, sounded feeble compared to the earsplitting sound of the roaring water in the distance and the constant whoosh, whoosh of the winds from the storm that was brewing just on the horizon. But there was something different about this rain, the sounds that my ears caught, and the way the moon's hazy light reflected off the beautiful lake before me that troubled me deeply.

It was summer in Transylvania, a time when the skies rarely cried, a time full of heat, full of warmth.... Thus the fact of the rain disturbed me, as if my unconscious mind could sense the coming of danger or loss and was trying to make itself known by something as simple as a downpour. Yet around me, nothing seemed out of the ordinary or ominous, minus the rain. So why was there a sense of loss tugging at my heart? Why did I feel like something cruel was amiss?

My thoughts frightened me. What was I to do if this suspicion was true? What if something was wrong with Jasper or a member of my pack? Fear squirmed in my belly and I rose swiftly to my paws. I broke out into a run, going to look for Jasper, to see if he was alright. I know where he would be, the same place he always was at night-- the meadow. The thought of the place sent chills racing down my spine, for it was the same place only three years ago, when I had been viciously attacked by one named Tasa. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I stopped at the rim of the meadow, shivering uncontrollably. I had to pull myself together, for both my sake and Jasper's. No one deserved to see me in this state; I would get over this pain, get over the scars that that day had inflected. I would live, as long as Jasper did.

"Tell me little one, why are you looking for Alice?" Alice's overly-sensitive ears caught the sound of her name, in her light sleep and even though she was wasn't by the speaker's side. The voice, one she recognized as Tarkah the former drappa of Koran, had broken off her dream before it had gotten too far, and she was thankful for that. It was the same dream she'd be having for days now; it was always the same, yet different somehow. Worded different though and it always seemed to take her by surprise, all the while she knew what would end up happening. It was like the world was screaming at her that she shouldn't be living, shouldn't be breathing, while Jasper was gone.

Bi-hued eyes opened again, blinking away the traces of the dream and memories. They opened to a darker realm for she'd given up her sight by opening her eyes. Raising to her paws, she stretched both of her front paws in turn before straightening up. Ears perked, she listened again for the voice, only to not hear it. So, following her nose, she ventured deeper into the forest of Koran, away from the sleeping dens. Three scents were prominent on the breeze, mixed in with the welcoming smells of Koran, one more familiar then the others. Della. And she was close too. Alice, blind scout of Koran, relied on her nose and ears as she drifted through the trees. The scent of Tarkah was there too, so she know she was safe, along with the coming of Sabla's. So Sabla was home, was she? Her heart lifted at that thought, for Sabla had been her very first friend, back when she was a little annoying pup named Thalia.

Arriving (for the scents were now their strongest), Alice kept her pace slow, so the nurse Tarkah and the jester Sabla would hear her approach or smell it. To Della, she merely said the pup's name.